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APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW 
TESTAMENT 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •   CHICAGO    •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •  BOMBAY   •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN 
THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

THE  BOHLEN  LECTURES,  1915 


BY 

ANDREW  D.  HEFFERN,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR  IN  NEW  TESTAMENT  LITERATURE  AND  LANGUAGE, 
PHILADELPHIA  DIVINITY  SCHOOL 


Nwn  fork 

THE  MAGMILLAN  COMPANY 

1922 

All  rights  reserved 


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Copyright,  1922 

bt  the  macmillan  company 


Set  up  and  printed.    Published  March,  1922.  ^^ 


<^^  ■   ^ 


Printed  in  the  United  Statea  of  America 


THE  JOHN  BOHLEN  LECTURESHIP 

John  Bohlen,  who  died  in  Philadelphia  on  the  twenty-sixth 
day  of  April,  1874,  bequeathed  to  trustees  a  fund  of  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  to  be  distributed  to  religious  and  charitable 
objects  in  accordance  with  the  well-known  wishes  of  the  testator. 

By  a  deed  of  trust,  executed  June  2,  1875,  the  trustees  under 
the  will  of  Mr.  Bohlen  transferred  and  paid  over  to  ''The  Rector, 
Church  Wardens,  and  Vestrymen  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  Philadelphia,"  in  trust,  a  sum  of  money  for  certain  des- 
ignated purposes,  out  of  which  fund  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars 
was  set  apart  for  the  endowment  of  The  John  Bohlen  Lecture- 
ship, upon  the  following  terms  and  conditions : — 

"  The  money  shall  be  invested  in  good  substantial  and  safe  securities, 
and  held  in  trust  for  a  fund  to  be  called  The  John  Bohlen  Lectureship, 
and  the  income  shall  be  applied  annually  to  the  payment  of  a  qualified 
person,  whether  clergyman  or  layman,  for  the  delivery  and  publication 
of  at  least  one  hundred  copies  of  two  or  more  lecture  sermons.  These 
Lectures  shall  be  delivered  at  such  time  and  place,  in  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, as  the  persons  nominated  to  appoint  the  lecturer  shall  from  time 
to  time  determine,  giving  at  least  six  months'  notice  to  the  person  appointed 
to  deliver  the  same,  when  the  same  may  conveniently  be  done,  and  in  no 
case  selecting  the  same  person  as  lecturer  a  second  time  within  a  period 
of  five  years.  The  payment  shall  be  made  to  said  lecturer,  after  the 
lectures  have  been  printed  and  received  by  the  trustees,  of  all  the  income 
for  the  year  derived  from  said  fund,  after  defraying  the  expense  of  print- 
ing the  lectures  and  the  other  incidental  expenses  attending  the  same. 

"The  subject  of  such  lectures  shall  be  such  as  is  within  the  terms  set 
forth  in  the  will  of  the  Rev.  John  Bampton,  for  the  delivery  of  what  are 
known  as  the  'Bampton  Lectures,'  at  Oxford,  or  any  other  subject  dis- 
tinctly connected  with  or  relating  to  the  Christian  Religion. 

"The  lecturer  shall  be  appointed  annually  in  the  month  of  May,  or  as 
soon  thereafter  as  can  conveniently  be  done,  by  the  persons  who  for  the 
time  being  shall  hold  the  offices  of  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Chiu'ch  of  the  Diocese  in  which  is  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity;  the 
Rector  of  said  Church,  the  Professor  of  Biblical  Learning,  the  Professor 

503404 


vi  THE  JOHN  BOHLEN  LECTURESHIP 

of  Systematic  Divinity,  and  the  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  in  the 
Divinity  School  of  the  Pijotestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Philadelphia. 

"In  case  either  of  said  offices  are  vacant,  the  others  may  nominate  the 
lecturer." 

Under  this  trust  the  Rev.  Andrew  D.  HefTem,  D.  D.,  was 
appointed  to  deliver  the  lectures  for  the  year  1915. 


EDITOR^S   NOTE 

The  Rev.  Professor  Andrew  D.  Heffern,  D.  D.,  died  in 
Philadelphia  May  2,  1920,  a  few  days  after  he  had  completed  the 
manuscript  of  these  Lectures.  The  interest  that  they  indicate  in 
New  Testament  work  began  in  the  author's  undergraduate  days 
at  Harvard,  developed  during  his  studies  at  the  Universities  of 
Berlin  and  Bonn,  and  was  maintained  through  twenty  years  of 
parish  work.  From  1900  he  held  the  chair  of  the  New  Testament 
at  the  Philadelphia  Divinity  School. 

The  undersigned,  whom  the  author  honored  as  his  friend  with 
the  duty  of  seeing  the  book  through  the  press,  acknowledges  the 
valuable  assistance  of  members  of  Professor  Heffern's  family  in 
the  proof  reading.  He  is  constrained  to  append  his  name  by  the 
sense  that  only  the  author  himself,  with  his  rare  accuracy,  could 
have  given  the  printed  book  its  perfect  form.  An  Index  has  been 
appended,  necessarily  imperfect  coming  from  another  than  the 
writer  of  so  compact  a  book;  but  it  may  be  of  partial  service 
for  topical  reference. 

James  A.  Montgomery. 
Philadelphia  Divinity  School, 

Epiphany  Tide,  1922. 


PREFACE 

The  large  element  of  controversy  in  the  New  Testament  Writ- 
ings has  suggested  the  following  studies  of  the  progress  of  Christi- 
anity amid  the  earhest  attacks  upon  it,  or  the  attempted  perver- 
sions of  it,  and  of  the  methods  of  its  original  defense  and  of  the 
establishment  of  believers  in  the  faith  of  the  Gospel.  An  examina- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  from  this  special  historical  standpoint 
promises  to  contribute  not  only  to  a  distincter  understanding  of  the 
development  of  some  of  the  movements  of  the  Apostohc  Age,  but 
also  to  the  exposition  of  several  of  its  Books  or  of  passages  in  them, 
in  the  Ught  of  their  polemic  occasions  and  of  their  direct  interest  in 
establishing  their  readers  against  specific  intruding  errors.  In 
some  cases  it  may  also  contribute  to  a  more  precise  understanding 
of  the  occasion  and  formulation  of  important  theological  themes. 
Such  a  study  will  have  the  additional  interest  of  recognizing  the 
abiding  principles  and  constant  Unes  of  defense,  and  the  bases  of 
the  full  assurance  of  faith  to  which  the  New  Testament  writers 
confidently  appeal. 

We  already  possess  numerous  important  studies  of  separate 
lines  of  New  Testament  apologetic  arguments  and  their  validity, 
and  of  the  external  persecutions;  exhaustive  investigations  of  the 
Judaistic  controversy,  and  monographs  on  the  errorists  alluded  to 
in  several  Books  of  the  New  Testament,  frequently  with  an 
interest  in  their  bearings  upon  critical  theories.  In  the  studies  here 
submitted,  portions  of  which  were  presented  in  the  public  lectures, 
an  attempt  has  been  made  to  gain  a  connected  view  of  these 
various  separate  features  and  movements  by  employing  as  the 
unifying  principle  the  dominating  religious  interest  of  the  writers 
in  the  genesis  of  faith  by  the  method  of  witness  and  apology,  and 
in  its  continued  establishment  against  attacks  from  without  and 
within. 

Such  a  historical  study  based  directly  upon  the  data  of  the  New 
Testament,  is  obviously  affected  by  literary  criticism  of  the  docu- 
ments, as  being  based  upon  it;  and  it  is  also  in  some  instances  a 


X  PREFACE 

factor  in  determining  its  results.  In  many  cases  this  historical  in- 
vestigation can  proceed  from  fairly  generally  accepted  critical 
conclusions.  Where,  however,  there  is  no  such  general  agreement 
concerning  the  genuineness  and  date  of  certain  Books,  the  en- 
deavor has  been  made  to  study  their  contents,  as  far  as  practicable, 
apart  from  critical  questions,  and  to  indicate  what  bearings,  if 
any,  the  result  has  upon  their  Hterary  and  historical  criticism. 
Definitely,  the  critical  views  here  followed  are,  for  the  Gospels, 
mainly  those  of  B.  Weiss,  and  for  the  Epirtles  largely  those  of 
Zahn.  Both  in  the  consideration  of  matters  of  criticism  and  in  the 
related  discussion  of  historical  developments  and  doctrinal  features, 
invaluable  help  has  constantly  been  gained  from  Moffatt's  Intro- 
duction. 

In  the  subject  of  polemic,  which  has  especially  since  the  Tubin- 
gen movement  been  regarded  as  concerned  principally  "With  the 
Judaistic  movement,  a  detailed  study  has  been  made  of  the  other 
line  of  attack  by  a  movement  of  gnosticizing  character.  While 
this  is  ordinarily  recognized  as  appearing  first  in  Colossae,  as  due 
to  local  influence,  and  as  otherwise  alluded  to  only  in  the  latest 
portions  of  the  New  Testament,  it  is  here  concluded  that  it  had 
an  earlier  appearance  and  wider  activity;  and  that  the  exposure 
and  confutation  of  it  is  a  prominent  interest  of  many  other  New 
Testament  Writings.  In  advocating  its  emergence  in  an  earlier 
stage  of  the  Pauline  mission  and  its  wider  range,  it  has  been  found 
advisable,  in  order  to  guard  against  any  impression  that  the 
evidence  for  this  would  rest  only  on  a  questionable  combination  of 
scattered  allusions  in  various  Epistles,  to  construct  at  the  outset 
such  features  of  it  as  may  be  recognized  independently  in  each 
Epistle  or  group;  and  then  to  indicate  how  the  separate  con- 
structions point  to  the  identity  of  one  general  movement  revealing 
itself  with  increasing  definiteness.  This  method  involves  un- 
avoidably a  repetition  in  the  separate  surveys,  of  the  indications 
of  controlling  features  of  the  movement;  but  it  has  been  deemed 
necessary  in  view  of  current  denials  of  allusions  to  such  a  move- 
ment before  Colossians  and  in  Epistles  subsequent  to  it. 

In  these  surveys  no  attempt  has  been  made,  since  the  New 
Testament  data  do  not  suffice,  to  construct  the  system  in  its  de- 
tails; but  primarily  to  ascertain  the  fact  of  the  activity  of  such  a 
movement  and  its  ominous  significance  for  the  fundamentals  of 


PREFACE  xi 

Christianity,  as  indeed  it  is  thus  definitely  viewed  and  confuted 
in  the  New  Testament  from  the  standpoint  of  its  threatened  in- 
fluence. It  will  also  be  found  that  these  separate  studies  of  the 
movement  in  the  ApostoUc  Age  have  been  made  with  no  attempt  to 
identify  the  New  Testament  errorists  with  any  special  forms  of 
later  gnosticism;  and,  apart  from  an  occasional  illustration,  with  no 
attempts  to  support  them  by  direct  parallels  with  second  century 
gnostic  terminology.  Should  the  view  here  proposed  meet  with  any 
general  measure  of  approval,  then  second  century  gnosticism  in 
some  of  its  detailed  doctrines  and  terms  is  further  available  in 
possible  illustration  of  certain  New  Testament  expressions,  special 
lines  of  reasoning  and  doctrinal  formulations,  and  of  some  obscure 
phrases  and  passages,  in  view  of  the  recognition  in  these  instances 
of  a  background  of  reference  to  a  general  gnostic  usage,  whether 
appropriated  or  repudiated  by  the  New  Testament  writers. 

If  the  thesis  here  advocated  is  tenable,  it  also  offers  through  the 
movement  as  it  has  been  here  constructed  in  its  controlling  out- 
lines, a  contribution  towards  the  filling  in  of  the  gap  in  our  knowl- 
edge as  to  the  link  connecting  pre-Christian  gnosticism  in  the  first 
half  of  the  first  century  and  the  great  gnostic  systems  of  the  first 
half  of  the  second  century. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  The  Conteoversial  Element  in  the  New  Testament 1 

II.  The  Genesis  op  the  Apostles*  Faith 13 

III.  The  Polemic  in  the  Gospels 27 

IV.  The  Apostolic  Apologia  of  Witness  and  the  Call  to  Faith 

IN  THE  Gospel  op  Salvation 56 

1.  To  the  Jews  and  Godfearers 57 

2.  To  the  Gentiles 78 

V.  Acceptance  of  the  Gospel  and  Standing  Steadfast  in 

Faith 104 

1.  The  Primitive  Catechesis 104 

2.  The  Confirmation  of  Faith 123 

3.  Establishment  in  the  Faith 134 

VI.  Establishment  against  External  Oppositions 149 

1.  The  Jewish  Attacks 149 

2.  The  Conflict  with  the  State 159 

VII.  The  Judaistic  Controversy 185 

VIII.  The  Intruding  Gnostic  Teachings 209 

1.  The  Thessalonian  Epistles 213 

2.  I  and  II  Corinthians  and  Romans 228 

3.  Epistles  of  the  Imprisonment 264 

4.  The  Pastorals 290 

5.  Hebrews,  Catholic  Epistles  and  Revelation 304 

IX.  The  Attack  and  Repulse  op  the  Gnostic  Movement  in 

THE  New  Testament 363 

1.  Its  Provenance  and  Advance  into  the  Church 366 

2.  Exposure  and  Discipline  of  the  Errorists 376 

3.  Methods  of  Establishment  of  the  Faithful 384 

Index  of  Selected  Biblical  Citations 403 

General  Index 409 


APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW 
TESTAMENT 


APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE 
NEW  TESTAMENT 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   CONTROVERSIAL  ELEMENT   IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Among  the  subjects  to  be  treated  in  this  lectureship,  according 
to  the  terms  of  the  foundation,  is  the  confirmation  and  estabUsh- 
ment  of  the  Christian  faith;  and  I  have  chosen  as  my  topic  its 
original  defense,  confirmation  and  estabhshment,  as  found  in  the 
New  Testament.  I  shall  endeavor  to  present  this  by  an  historical 
study  and  discussion  of  Apology  and  Polemic  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

The  New  Testament  is  primarily  a  book  of  reUgion.  It  has 
flowered  out  of  the  inspired  teaching,  rehgious  life  and  aims  of 
the  primitive  Christians;  and  through  the  Christian  generations 
it  has  been  a  source  of  rehgious  illumination,  power  and  peace. 
It  is,  however,  equally  true  that  the  origin  of  the  Book  and  of  the 
reUgion  of  the  New  Testament  was  closely  aUied  with  controversy 
and  contest.  What  Wrede  complains  of  as  the  character  and 
tendency  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  the  most  devotional  of  our  New 
Testament  writings,  is  indeed  true  of  it  and  of  all  the  New  Testa- 
ment books:  it  was  born  out  of  conflict;  although  it  is  not  true, 
as  he  claims,  that  it  was  written  for  conflict.^  That  books  of  con- 
troversy should  at  the  same  time  be  books  of  devotion  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  in  the  primitive  contest  for  the  faith  dehvered,  its 
defenders  preached  and  wrote  according  to  the  rule  enunciated  by 
Isaiah  and  followed  by  Christ  (Mtw.  12,  18):  that  the  Lord's 
servant  must  not  strive,  fxax^<Tdai,,  but  be  gentle  towards  all, 
apt  to  teach,  patient  of  wrongs,  in  meekness  correcting  those  that 
oppose  themselves,  II  Tim.  2,  24  f.  They  were  ready  always  to 
give  answer,  ctTroXoYta,  yet  with  meekness  and  fear,  I  Pet.  3,  15. 

1 W.  Wrede,  Vortrdge  und  Studien,  1907,  p.  208. 


2     AKrtX^Gt'Al^  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

The  prominence  of  these  oppositions  to  the  Gospel  was  predicted 
in  Simeon^s  warning  in  Christ's  infancy:  this  Child  is  set  for  the 
falling  and  rising  again  of  many  in  Israel;  and  for  a  sign  which  is 
spoken  against.  So  too  the  Christian  Apostle  near  the  close  of 
his  lifework,  echoes  Simeon's  prophecy  in  describing  his  ministry 
as  an  appointment  for  the  defense  and  confirmation,  kiroKoyia 
Kol  /Sc/Satwo-ts  of  the  Gospel,  Php.  1,  7,16. 

Emphasis  on  this  element  of  opposition  may  seem  to  conflict 
with  the  truth  that  the  New  Testament  Age  was  the  fullness  of 
time;  that  it  was  the  acceptable  time,  the  /catpos  when  the  Gen- 
tile world  was  prepared  to  receive  the  Gospel  of  salvation  and 
when  Israel  had  been  prepared  to  bring  it  to  them.  It  was  in 
truth  this  fullness  and  nick  of  time,  just  because  it  was  a  supreme 
crisis  in  humanity's  history.  The  opposing  spiritual  principles, 
ideals  and  forces  of  the  old  world-order  and  of  Christ's  new  revela- 
tion and  redemption  met  then  in  decisive  conflict.  In  such  a 
crisis,  the  Christ  realized  that  He  was  come  not  to  send  peace  on 
the  earth;  "not  to  permit  it  to  remain  on  the  old  level,"  but  to 
send  a  sword,  Mtw.  10,  34.  So  St.  Paul  looked  on  the  fullness  of 
time  as  the  opening  of  a  great  door  and  effectual;  yet  a  door  that 
opened  out  on  many  adversaries,  I  Cor.  16,  9.  Conflict  was  in- 
evitable in  such  a  crisis.  The  Incarnation  was  the  inbreathing 
and  involution  of  a  new  creative  force  into  the  life,  thought  and 
institutions  of  the  human  life.  It  h£id  to  be  organically  correlated 
with  the  existing  religious  Ufe:  with  the  Ufe  of  Israel  under  the 
preparatory  discipline  of  the  Old  Testament  revelation  in  law  and 
prophecy;  with  the  messianic  hope  of  the  Baptist,  of  the  Pharisee 
and  of  the  Zealot;  with  the  moral  and  social  systems  of  Jew  and 
Gentile;  and  in  general  with  their  need  of  salvation,  and  with 
their  imperfect  receptivity  for  Christ's  revelation  of  that  salvation 
in  himself.  If  as  the  older  Hegelianism  taught,  Christianity  was 
a  natural  evolution  out  of  Aryan  intellectualism  and  Semitic 
religionism,  there  would  have  been  no  such  conflict  as  we  find  in 
the  New  Testament.  There  was  indeed  a  commingling  of  those 
elements  going  on  in  this  period ;  yet  the  result  was  not  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,  but  the  quiet  coalescence  of  Orientalism  with  Graeco- 
Roman  thought  in  the  various  forms  of  Syncretism.  The  fact 
and  the  character  of  the  conflicts  of  the  Apostolic  Age,  as  well 
as  its  spiritual  triumph,  are  themselves  testimonies  that  Christian- 


CONTROVERSIAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  NIlW  TESTAMENT      3 

ity  was  a  new  creative  force,  a  new  covenant,  a  new  and  complete 
revelation,  a  new  life.^ 

Our  New  Testament  writings  are  in  varying  measure  related  to 
the  emergence,  development  and  overcoming  of  these  oppositions. 
This  is  recognized  in  the  famiHar  characterizations  of  many  of 
these  books.  Matthew  is  entitled  by  Zahn  as  an  apologia  to  the 
Jews.  Acts  is  regarded  by  Bartlet  and  J.  Weiss  as  an  apology  to 
the  Romans.  Farrar  finds  in  II  Corinthians  St.  PauPs  apologia 
pro  vita  sua.  Edmundson  and  many  others  see  in  Romans  his 
apology  for  his  gospel;  and  Bruce  studies  Hebrews  as  the  first 
Christian  apology.  A  study  of  the  New  Testament  from  this 
viewpoint  may  contribute  to  our  understanding  of  the  historic 
setting  and  aims  of  its  writings,  and  of  their  treatment  of  the 
various  attacks  from  without,  and  of  the  controversies  within,  the 
Church  of  the  Apostolic  Age. 

There  is  besides  the  same  need  of  confirmation  and  estabUsh- 
ment  of  faith  to-day,  which  involves  a  study  of  the  method  and 
validity  of  its  defense  in  ApostoUc  days.  And  this  especially 
because  of  current  claims  that  our  New  Testament  Books,  in 
particular  the  Gospels,  are  dominated  by  an  apologetic  aim. 
Wemle,  in  the  opening  nimiber  of  the  Zeitschrift  fXir  die  N.  T. 
Wissenschaft,  1900,  discusses  the  ancient  Christian  apologetic  in 
the  New  Testament,  and  concludes,  p.  63  f.  that  all  four  Gospels 
are  distinctly  apologies;  each  advancing  beyond  its  predecessor  in 
the  task  of  defending  the  Christian  faith  against  Jews  and  heathen ; 
apology  is  their  controlHng  aim,  and  it  develops  into  inventive  and 
freely  creative  apologetic.  Wrede,  in  the  essay  on  the  Character 
and  Tendency  of  the  Gospel  of  John  cited  above,  has  even  more 
definitely  attacked  the  Fourth  Gospel,  because  of  the  aim,  charac- 
ter and  worth  of  the  Apology  he  finds  in  it.   Baldensperger '  sees  in 

2  Liddon,  Clerical  Life  and  Work,  p.  149,  recalls  the  task  confronting  the 
Apostles  in  taking  up  their  commission  to  make  disciples  of  all  nations:  'Before 
them  were  vast  political  bodies  with  the  prestige  of  antiquity  and  the  prestige 
of  possession,  and  committed  to  the  support  of  popular  falsehoods.  Before 
them  were  intellectual  systems,  elaborated  by  generations  of  thinkers,  and 
commanding,  if  not  the  beUef ,  yet  certainly  the  respect  of  the  educated  classes. 
Before  them  all  the  ambitions,  all  the  lusts,  all  the  luxuries,  all  the  vested 
interests  of  a  large  and  corrupt  society.' 

•W.  Baldensperger,  Der  Prolog  des  vierten  Evangeliums:  sein  polemisch- 
apologetischer  Zweck.  1898. 


4       APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

this  Gospel  an  apologetic  purpose  in  a  polemic  against  the  School 
of  the  Baptist.  J.  Weiss  has  exploited  in  his  unfinished  work  on 
Primitive  Christianity,  his  earUer  views  of  Acts  as  apologetic,  in 
order  to  prove  its  composition  at  100  A.  D.,  and  to  reduce  it  to  the 
level  of  a  second  century  apology.  Weinel  too  has  appropriated 
this  view  of  the  apologetic  element  in  the  Gospels,  in  the  con- 
struction of  his  BibUcal  Theology  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
real  significance  of  these  recent  theories  of  the  character  of  the 
apologetic  of  the  New  Testament,  is  that  it  is  claimed  to  be  not  a 
defense  of  Christ's  Gospel,  but  of  an  alleged  transformation  of  that 
Gospel;  in  other  words,  it  is  only  an  apology  for  the  faith  of  the 
Church  at  the  close  of  the  ApostoUc  Age. 

The  direct  discussion  of  this  claim  would  involve  a  detailed  in- 
vestigation of  the  many  relevant  topics  of  hterary  and  historical 
criticism  of  the  Gospels.  We  can  therefore  here  only  recall  that  in 
some  instances  the  alleged  apologetic  interest  has  to  be  read  into 
the  narrative;  that  in  general  its  influence  in  the  composition  of  the 
historical  Books  has  been  pressed  out  of  proportion;  and  that  a 
determination  of  its  definite  function  and  character  will  furnish  no 
support  to  the  theory  of  a  creative  apologetic.  Wernle  himself 
recognizes,  op.  dt.,  p.  63  n.,  that  the  Evangelists  were  influenced  by 
many  other  tendencies,  although  he  claims  that  the  apologetic 
interest  was  dominating.  In  this  conclusion  Menzies  decides  that 
*  he  perhaps  goes  too  far. '  *  Menzies  himself  in  discussing  the 
motives  of  the  formation  of  the  Gospel  tradition,  finds  the  general 
motives  to  be  three:  the  aetiological,  by  which  any  reUgion  seeks  an 
explanation  of  its  own  character,  arrangements  and  institutions; 
the  apologetic,  which  provides  a  defense  against  attacks  from 
without  by  presenting  the  tradition  of  the  life  and  teaching  of 
Christ  as  the  best  defense  of  the  faith;  and  the  devotional,  to 
reaUze  its  own  spirit  and  gain  fresh  vigor  in  the  spring  of  the 
Christian  movement,  Christ  himself.  While  allowing  that  the 
Gospel  tradition  was  modified  by  these  three  impulses,  he  empha- 
sizes the  historical  character  of  the  Gospels.  Concerning  the 
apologetic  motive  he  states :  *  No  one  would  say  that  these  elements 
of  the  Gospel  tradition  were  invented  to  serve  the  purpose  of 
arguments  for  the  Christian  cause;'  and  he  adds,  'but  that  they 

*A.  Mewies,  The  Earliest  Oospel,  1901,  p.  15  n.,  pp.  4-19. 


CONTROVERSIAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT      5 

did  serve  in  this  way  is  undeniable,  and  that  those  who  arranged 
and  handed  on  the  tradition  must  have  felt  it  to  have  this  virtue  is 
equally  plain. ' 

In  such  a  construction  the  apologetic  element  of  the  Gospels  is 
presented  in  a  truer  proportion.  Yet  Menzies'  closing  suggestion 
of  the  Evangelists'  interest  in  defense  against  external  attacks  has 
to  be  qualified  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Gospels  are  addressed  to, 
and  written  in  the  interest  of  the  estabhshment  of,  beUevers  already 
confirmed  in  the  faith.^  They  were  therefore  not  composed  with 
the  aim  of  winning  the  readers  to  faith;  nor  with  a  direct  aim  of 
guarding  them  against  external  attacks  and  objections.  For  these 
would  have  been  urged  with  full  force  at  the  time  of  the  readers  ^ 
profession,  and  even  in  Christ's  lifetime,  and  hence  had  been  al- 
ready met  and  overcome  at  their  conversion.  We  must  rather  look 
for  their  apologetic  significance  in  connection  with  internal  attacks. 
As  will  appear  in  the  closing  chapters,  instead  of  being  designed  as 
apologetic  for  an  advanced  doctrinal  development  at  the  date  of 
their  composition,  they  may,  with  a  great  degree  of  probabihty, 
have  been  intended  to  serve  among  other  general  interests,  as  a 
recognized  basis  of  appeal  from,  and  a  criterion  of,  spurious  de- 
velopments of  faith,  perversions  of  Christian  morals,  denials  of  the 
Christian  hope  and  rejection  of  apostolic  authority  and  tradition, 
made  on  the  plea  of  advance  by  means  of  alleged  spiritual  gifts. 
They  in  fact  provide  the  distinct  statement  of  the  earUest  and 
original  Gospel  facts  and  teachings,  to  which  the  Epistles  appeal 
as  a  test  of  false  teaching  and  for  the  estabhshment  of  disciples 
who  wish  to  abide  in  that  which  they  had  heard  from  the 
beginning. 

The  occasions  for  a  special  study  of  the  New  Testament  defense 
and  confirmation  of  the  Gospel  are  increasingly  recognized  both  in 
recent  surveys  and  in  a  few  direct  treatments  of  the  subject,  of 

^  Weinel,  Bib.  Theol  N.  T.,  p.  445:  'No  one  of  the  N.  T.  Writings  is  in  fact 
addressed  to  those  who  are  outside.'  Harnack,  The  Mission  and  Expansion 
of  Christianity,  1.  385  n.:  'The  N.  T.  does  not  contain  a  single  missionary  work. 
The  Synoptic  Gospels  must  not  be  embraced  under  this  category,  for  they 
are  catechetical  works,  intended  for  the  instruction  of  people  who  are  already 
acquainted  with  the  principles  of  doctrine,  and  who  require  to  have  their 
faith  enriched  and  confirmed.  .  .  .  Primarily,  at  any  rate,  even  the  Fourth 
Gospel  has  Christian  readers  in  view,  for  it  is  certainly  Christians  and  not 
pagans  who  are  addressed  in  20,  31.' 


6      APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

varying  range.  The  starting  point  of  general  histories  of  Christian 
apologetic  is  ordinarily  the  second  century,  as  being  especially  the 
Age  of  the  apologists.^  Among  works  on  the  earUest  period,  the 
prize  essay  of  G.  Schmitt,  Die  Apologie  der  3.  ersten  Jahrhunderte, 
1890,  presents  in  a  historic  and  systematic  method  the  apology  of 
only  the  later  half  of  this  period.  James  Macgregor,  History  of  the 
N.  T.  Apologetics,  1894,  is  principally  interested,  pp.  21-121,  in  the 
discussion  of  Christ's  'manner  of  dealing  with  matter  of  proof  in 
religion,  and  what  He  ordained  regarding  the  sources  and  grounds 
of  Christian  evidence;'  and  more  definitely,  in  the  appeal  made  by 
Him  and  His  Apostles,  to  prophecy,  miracle  and  personal  testimony. 
A  constructive  general  survey  of  apology  and  polemic  in  the  New 
Testament  age,  made  from  his  special  standpoint  of  literary  criti- 
cism, is  given  by  Arnold  Meyer.^  In  it  the  prominence  of  the 
apologetic  element  in  the  New  Testament  Writings  is  emphasized, 
its  definite  occasions  and  the  main  lines  of  attack  and  defense  are 
presented  along  with  characterizations  of  the  method,  spirit  and 
results  of  the  controversies  both  in  the  ministry  of  Christ  and  of 
His  Apostles.  A  few  years  earher  E.  F.  Scott^  gave  what  is  probably 
the  first '  separate  discussion  of  the  primitive  Apology  as  a  whole. ' 
With  an  introductory  exposition  of  the  prominence,  methods  and 
issues  of  the  New  Testament  apology,  and  a  concluding  estimate  of 
its  permanent  value,  he  has  given  a  most  clear  and  valuable  history 
and  discussion  of  the  primitive  claim  and  defense  of  Jesus'  mes- 
siahship,  and  of  the  controlUng  phases  of  the  Church 's  developing 
conflict  with  Judaism,  heathenism  and  gnosticism,  and  of  its  own 
ultimate  claim  to  be  the  absolute  religion.  In  the  present  lectures 
it  is  proposed  to  study  in  such  varying  degree  of  detail  as  the 
several  topics  may  seem  to  require,  the  historical  conditions  and 
development  of  the  primitive  controversies,  especially  in  their 
relation  both  to  the  genesis  of  Christian  faith  and  also  to  its  estab- 
lishment in  conflict  with  emerging  oppositions.  This  later  phase  of 
the  subject  will  involve  in  particular  a  special  examination  of  the 
indications,  character  and  influence  of  a  gnosticizing  movement 

•  The  older  works  are  briefly  listed  in  A.  S.  Farrar's  Critical  History  of  Free 
Thought,  1862,  p.  460,  and  most  fully  in  Zoeckler,  Gea.  d.  Apologie  des  Christen- 
thum,  1907. 

^  EHe  Religion  in  Geschichie  und  Gegenvxirt,  I,  coll.  666-576. 

•  The  Apologetic  of  The  New  Testament,  1907. 


\ 


CONTROVERSIAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT    7 

within  the  Church  shortly  after  the  beginning  of  the  Pauline 
mission. 

In  approaching  the  consideration  of  the  general  subject,  our 
natural  starting  point  is  the  evident  fact  that  in  the  New  Testa-    \/ 
ment  Age,  the  Gospel  was  beUeved,  cp.  I  Thess.  2,  13.    In  spite  of     i^ 
obstacles  of  preconceptions,  disappointment  of  messianic  hopes,      / 
reversal  of  life-long  convictions,  revolution  of  world-view  and 
stem  demands  for  the  highest  moral  obedience,  the  New  Testament 
defense  of  the  Gospel  was  successful.    So  complete  is  the  conviction 
of  the  converts,  that  in  the  Epistles  to  them  we  find  nowhere  an 
apologetic  for  the  fundamental  faith.    That  faith  is  made,  in  the 
Epistles,  the  acknowledged  basis  of  instruction  and  exhortation, 
upon  the  emergence  of  any  danger  of  perversion  by  false  teaching 
or  immorahty.    Even  in  Hebrews,  with  its  warning  of  the  danger  of 
apostasy,  there  is  no  renewal  of  the  original  defense.    It  assimies,  in 
its  opening  words,  the  truth  of  the  fundamental  faith  and  states  it 
in  its  highest  christological  terms. 

This  belief  of  the  primitive  Christians  was  moreover  the  highest 
and  most  complete  certitude.  Its  full  assurance  was  even  more 
than  intellectual  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrinal  statements 
and  of  the  reaUty  of  the  historical  redemptive  facts  preached  in  the 
Gospel;  even  more  than  a  conviction  of  the  worth  of  its  moral 
ideals,  and  of  the  certainty  of  the  judgment  which  it  proclaimed. 
It  was  nothing  less  than  the  direct  certitude,  jSejSaicocris,  of  the  ful- 
fillment of  its  promise  of  a  moral  and  spiritual  renewal  of  their 
whole  personal  life.  It  was  certitude  of  an  entrance  into  a  state  of 
salvation  by  union  with  the  glorified  Christ.  Such  certitude  of  sal- 
vation on  the  part  of  the  primitive  believers  could  only  rest  upon 
the  fullest  proof,  witness  and  defense.  It  set  therefore  before  the 
Apostolic  preachers,  the  task  of  an  adequate  satisfaction  of  the 
intellect  by  all  the  means  of  proof  of  truth  and  historic  fact.  The 
task  was  the  greater  since  the  truth  of  the  redemptive  facts  was 
presented  along  with  supreme  moral  demands  on  the  will,  affections 
and  conscience  for  a  response  of  self-renunciation  and  of  self- 
devotion  to  the  divine  offer  of  salvation.  Since  the  response  could 
be  made  only  because  of  conviction  of  the  divine  authority  for  such 
demands  and  offers,  the  proof  and  defense  of  the  Gospel  must  be 
accompanied  with  a  direct  divine  awakening,  illumination  and  in- 
vigoration  of  the  whole  personality. 


8     APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

The  means  by  which  the  genesis  of  this  certitude  and  full  assur- 
ance of  faith  was  effected,  will  be  considered  in  detail  in  the  study 
of  the  Gospel  propaganda  to  Israel  and  to  the  Gentiles.  We  may 
here,  however,  briefly  recall  the  outstanding  hindrances  to  its 
acceptance  as  they  appear  at  the  first  preaching  of  the  Gospel  at 
Pentecost.  Among  the  hearers  of  that  apologia  to  Israel  were 
Jews  of  the  Dispersion,  who  had  come  under  the  broadening  in- 
fluences of  life  outside  Palestine.  While  such  Jews  would  be  apt  to 
be  more  receptive  towards  Christ's  spiritual  teaching  and  inter- 
pretation of  Israel's  religion,  in  contrast  to  the  rigid  ceremoniaHsm 
and  particularism  of  Palestinian  Judaism,  they  had  not,  on  the 
other  hand,  received  the  deep  impression  made  upon  the  Palestin- 
ian multitudes  by  Christ's  life,  character  and  gracious  ministry  of 
mercy  and  power  in  word  and  deed.  They  would  therefore  nat- 
urally adopt  the  position  of  Palestinians,  who  in  spite,  of  every 
form  of  Christ's  witness  to  His  messiahship  in  His  ministry  among 
them,  had  rejected  Him.  At  Pentecost  all  the  earlier  obstacles  to 
Jewish  conversion  remained  in  full  force,  and  had  been  enhanced  by 
the  supreme  obstacle  of  His  death  upon  the  cross.  He  had  failed  to 
reaUze  the  messianic  ideals  of  any  of  the  parties:  zealot,  pharisee 
and  those  who  like  Simeon  and  Cleopas  looked  for  redemption  of 
Israel.  He  had  further  failed  to  satisfy  their  demands  for  proof 
of  his  exalted  claims:  a  line  of  objection  exploited  by  the  ruling 
Jewish  authorities.  These  two  obstacles  correspond  to  the  second 
and  third  temptations  of  Christ :  to  satisfy  the  national  expectation 
of  a  conquering  warrior-messiah ;  and  to  satisfy  the  national  de- 
mand for  an  over-powering  sign  and  proof  from  Heaven,  of  His 
claims.  But  the  first  temptation,  concerned  with  the  suffering 
Christ,  pointed  to  the  completing  obstacle  to  beUef  in  His  Gospel 
of  the  kingdom,  and  in  His  claim  to  be  its  King.  The  cross,  ever  a 
stumbling  block  to  the  Jewish  hope  of  messianic  glory,  removed  all 
possibility  of  further  interest  in  His  cause.  Hence  the  Apostles  had 
the  threefold  task  of  removing  this  stumbling  block  of  the  cross;  of 
establishing  His  claim  to  be  the  Christ,  Lord  and  Son  of  God ;  and 
of  winning  them  for  personal  devotion  to  Him  in  the  kingdom  as 
He  preached  it  and  as  He  established  it. 

They  had,  on  the  other  hand,  in  their  Jewish  propaganda  the 
advantage  of  addressing  men  trained  by  and  devoted  to  the  Old 
Testament  religion  and  the  messianic  hope  of  its  prophets.    Their 


CONTROVERSIAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT    9 

Palestinian  hearers  are  also  already  familiar  with  the  chief  events 
in  Christ's  life  and  with  the  principal  teaching  of  His  ministry. 
They  accept  the  possibility  of  miracles.  And  they  are  trusting  for 
salvation  in  a  coming  judgment  by  means  of  a  covenant  union  with 
God,  secured  by  faith  and  repentance;  as  this  salvation  was  fully 
preached  by  their  Scriptures,  the  Baptist  and  the  Prophet  of 
Galilee.  In  preaching  to  men  thus  prepared,  several  essential 
topics  in  the  defense  of  the  Gospel,  such  as  revelation,  prophecy 
and  miracle,  would  be  assumed;  while  in  the  later  propaganda  to 
the  Gentiles  and  in  propaganda  to-day  in  Christian  and  heathen 
lands,  these  topics  call  for  direct  presentation. 

The  method  of  the  preachers  in  winning  beUevers  from  among 
the  Jews,  with  such  helps  and  hindrances  to  faith  in  Jesus  as  the 
Christ,  was  naturally  the  method  by  which  Christ  Himself  had  won 
the  Apostles  to  faith.  The  difficulties  of  the  apostolic  propaganda 
among  their  fellow  countrjmaen  were  at  least  no  greater  than  those 
which  their  Lord  had  faced  and  overcome  in  winning  Galilean 
peasants  to  belief  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  promised  Messiah; 
and  in  transforming  them  into  men  assured  of  their  personal 
salvation  and  endowed  with  spiritual  power  by  their  faith  in  him. 
Their  hope  of  success  in  preaching  the  Gospel  could  therefore  be 
built  only  on  their  following  the  method  of  their  Master,  which  was 
besides  the  only  method  they  knew  and  the  only  method  we  can 
conceive. 

In  attempting,  however,  to  trace  this  genesis  of  the  Apostles' 
faith,  we  have  first  to  consider  the  question  of  the  method  of  the 
use  of  the  Gospels  as  the  sources  of  the  history  of  this  genesis. 
Where  these  Gospels  are  regarded  as  '  creative  apologetic '  for  the 
later  christology  of  the  Church ;  and  where  as  in  many  liberal  works 
they  are  treated  as  being  largely  transformations  of  a  simpler 
gospel  of  one  who  was  but  a  prophet  and  an  unique  religious 
genius,  it  would  be  indeed  arguing  in  a  circle  to  regard  these  gospels 
as  the  foundations  of  the  faith  of  those  who  created  or  transformed 
them;  since  they  are  the  results  and  not  the  causes  of  that  faith. 
It  is  not  possible  here  to  discuss  the  historical  criticism  of  the 
Gospels  in  order  to  determine  directly  the  question  of  scientific 
method  which  confronts  us  at  this  point.  Some  general  consid- 
erations will,  however,  support  our  method  of  use  of  the  Synoptic 
Gospels  primarily  and  the  Fourth  Gospel  as  supplementary  to 


10    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

them,  in  tracing  Jesus'  method  in  educating  the  Twelve  to  beUef  in 
Him  as  Christ  and  Lord. 

The  trend  of  recent  criticism  is  toward  the  recognition  that  the 
alleged  transformation  of  the  Gospel  into  a  defense  of  the  Church 
christology  must  in  any  case  have  been  a  primitive  rather  than  a 
late  transformation.  It  is  no  longer  customary  to  regard  St.  Paul 
as  the  author  of  such  a  transformation.  The  essential  features  of 
his  christology  were  those  of  the  primitive  Christians  at  the  date 
of  his  conversion,  in  or  before  36  A.  D.^  Our  written  Gospels  likewise, 
besides  their  agreement  with  Pauline  views  of  Christ,  ^°  present  the 
same  fundamental  features  concerning  faith  in  Christ  and  the  same 
witness  for  it  as  appear  outlined  in  the  Oral  Gospel  in  Acts  2,  3,  4, 
10  and  13,  which  indicate  the  primitive  and  traditional  form  of 
Gospel  preaching  and  defense  during  the  period  30  to  50  A.  D.  On 
this  view  of  the  essential  correspondence  of  the  Gospels  with 
primitive  teaching,  the  question  that  calls  for  answer  is  not  merely 
when  or  how  the  faith  of  the  apostoUc  preachers  could  have  trans- 
formed the  Gospel  of  Christ,  but  when  and  how  His  Gospel  trans- 
formed them:  how  GaUlean  peasants  and  fishermen,  with  fixed 
Pharisaic  ideals  of  Old  Testament  piety  and  legalism,  and  with 
fixed  apocalyptic  conceptions  of  the  Messiah  and  the  Messianic 
kingdom,  could  be  transformed  into  the  men  of  Christian  faith  as 
we  find  them  in  the  Acts  and  Epistles.  Their  fellowship  with 
Christ  as  he  is  portrayed  in  the  written  Gospels  of  His  ministry, 
death  and  resurrection  fully  and  alone  accounts  for  their  faith. 
The  Gospels  have  therefore  a  rightful  claim  to  be  used  as  primary 

» H.  Weinel,  Bib.  Theol.  N.  T.,  pp.  212,  218  in  §§  37,  38;  and  p.  238:  'Paul 
is  heir  also  in  Christianity.  As  he  stands  behind  Jesus  and  is  not  conceivable 
without  Jesus,  so  too  the  great  transformation  of  the  Gospel  into  a  message 
concerning  Jesus  as  the  Christ,  Lord  and  Son  of  God,  concerning  the  resur- 
rection, baptism,  and  Lord's  Supper,  had  already  taken  place  before  he  was 
drawn  into  the  movement.'  J.  Weiss,  Urchristm.,  p.  341,  introduces  his  ex- 
position of  the  special  developments  of  Christology  by  Paul,  with  the  re- 
minder: "We  should  however  misrepresent  Paul's  complete  view,  if  we  did 
not  bear  in  mind  that  in  his  view  of  faith  in  Christ,  there  is  also  still  present  a 
general  primitive  Christian,  and  indeed  a  definitely  Jewish  Christian  sub- 
stratum upon  which  the  individual — Pauline  'Christ  piety'  first  builds  itself." 
JiUicher,  Pavlus  u.  Jesus,  Rel.  Ges.  Vblicher,  I,  14,  p.  69:  'If  the  reUgion  of 
Jesus  has  in  any  event  suffered  a  definite  transformation,  then  that  transforma- 
tion takes  place  in  the  period  before  Paul's  conversion. 

"  Op.  the  works  cited,  p.  73. 


CONTROVERSIAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT    11 

sources  explanatory  of  the  genesis  of  the  primitive  faith  instead  of 
being  regarded  as  the  transformed  products  of  an  early  or  later 
faith. 

More  definitely,  the  Synoptic  Gospels  can  in  particular  be  used 
as  sources  for  the  history  of  Christ's  discipline  of  the  Twelve  in 
faith,  because  this  history  is  not  based  on  special  sections  which 
have  been  suspected  as  created  or  colored  by  later  dogmatic  or 
apologetic  tendency.     The  development  of  the  Apostles'  faith 
emerges  incidentally  and  indirectly.     Since  it  does  not  appear 
within  the  direct  scope  of  the  EvangeHsts,  there  can  be  no  thought 
of  their  giving  an  unhistorical  view  of  the  subject.    Even  the  con- 
fession of  St.  Peter  at  Csesarea  Philippi  is  presented  more  definitely 
as  a  critical  stage  in  Christ's  ministry  and  self-revelation  than  as 
the  climax  of  the  Apostles'  beUef  around  which  the  Gospel  history 
centered.    Further,  the  present  stage  of  synoptic  criticism  enables 
us  to  use  confidently  for  our  purpose  the  generally  recognized 
sources  of  the  synoptic  tradition:  Mark;  Q,  the  largely  non-marcan 
discourse  material  common  to  Matthew  and  Luke;  and  L,  the 
source  of  the  material  pecuHar  to  Luke.^^  J.  Weiss,  Das  Ur christen- 
thuniy  p.  8,  while  regarding  our  Gospels  as  influenced  by  Pauline  and 
ecclesiastical  ideas,  accepts  these  sources  of  the  synoptic  tradition 
as  originating  as  to  their  substance  from  the  primitive  Christian 
community.    He  also  finds,  p.  3,  that  even  the  Fourth  Gospel  as 
well  as  the  other  Johannine  books  contains  so  much  ancient 
material  both  in  feehng  and  in  mode  of  thought,  that  he  decided  to 
attempt  to  call  them  also  as  witnesses  for  his  portrayal  of  the 
Beginnings  of  Christianity. 

The  Fourth  Gospel,  unlike  the  Synoptics,  shows  direct  interest 
in  the  genesis  of  Christian  faith. ^^  In  view,  however,  of  the  critical 
discussions  concerning  the  historical  character  of  the  discourses  or 
narratives  of  this  Gospel,  we  shall  first  ascertain  the  indications  of 
the  synoptic  data;  and  then  compare  them  with  the  similar  indica- 
tions and  statements  in  the  Johannine  account.    The  result  of  the 

**  Reconstructed  in  Greek  by  B.  Weiss,  Texte  und  Untersudiungen,  1908. 
Bd.  32:  Q,  p.  1-75;  L,  pp.  97-168. 

"  H.  S.  Holland,  Creed  and  Character,  1887,  treats  this  Gospel  in  the  first 
two  sermons  as  the  Story  of  an  Apostle's  and  Disciple's  Faith:  "The 
Fourth  Gospel  tells  how  the  Apostolic  faith  was  built  and  established," 
p.  20. 


12    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

comparison  may  itself  contribute  towards  the  determination  of  the 
historicity  of  the  relevant  Johannine  material. 

Adopting  this  method  of  use  of  our  Gospels  or  their  sources  in 
order  to  ascertain  Christ's  method  of  winning  the  first  disciples  to 
behef  in  him,  we  can  also  say  with  J.  Weiss  when  adopting  the  same 
method  for  his  study  of  Primitive  Christianity,  p.  2:  "The  attempt 
must  speak  for  itself;  and  the  knowledge  so  obtained  must  itself 
show  whether  it  is  convincing,  free  from  self-contradiction  and 
possible." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   GENESIS   OP  THE  APOSTLES'   FAITH 

The  genesis  of  the  Apostles'  faith  was  conditioned  not  only  by 
the  nature  of  the  claims  Jesus  made  concerning  Himself  and  by  the 
obstacles  to  recognition  of  these  claims,  but  also  and  primarily  by 
the  spiritual  character  of  the  Apostles.  Their  fundamental  inter- 
est in  Him  must  be  a  religious  interest.  This  spiritual  interest  was 
already  manifested  by  them  in  their  acceptance  of  the  preaching  of 
John  the  Baptist.  With  their  nation,  they  came  to  his  baptism 
confessing  their  sins  and  devoting  themselves  to  works  worthy  of 
repentance.  Whatever  other  elements  were  comprised  in  their 
messianic  hopes  of  national  glory  and  apocalyptic  bliss,  the  es- 
sential blessing  in  their  messianic  expectations  was  to  them  justifi- 
cation; acceptance  in  the  messianic  judgment;  entrance  into 
eternal  hfe  at  the  coming  redemption  of  Israel,  upon  their  admis- 
sion into  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

This  rehgious  attitude  was  involved  in  the  current  apocalyptic 
idea  of  the  Kingdom  coming  by  means  of  the  sudden  entrance  of 
the  all  holy  God  into  their  earthly  Ufe;  and  was  also  involved  in  the 
view  of  life  in  the  Kingdom  as  a  Ufe  in  God's  presence  and  as  en- 
dowed with  the  gifts  of  His  Spirit. 

Lack  of  such  direct  rehgious  interest  in  the  preaching  of  the 
Kingdom's  imminence  was  of  course  only  too  possible.  The 
Baptist  saw  the  necessity  of  sternest  warning  against  reUance  on 
national  Jewish  prerogative  as  Abraham's  children,  for  immunity 
in  the  Judgment.  But  throughout  the  Gospels,  the  positively 
rehgious  character  of  the  Apostles  is  indicated.  Christ  has  to 
lament  their  slowness  to  understand;  but  no  rebuke  is  recorded  of 
their  sins  or  lack  of  spiritual  interests,  save  in  the  case  of  Judas. 
The  failure  of  Christ  to  win  or  to  retain  him,  as  a  behever  was  due, 
so  far  as  we  can  trace  his  spiritual  history,  to  loss  of  rehgious 
interest  and  to  deterioration  of  moral  character,  when  his  mes- 
sianic hopes  were  shattered  upon  Christ's  refusal  to  be  a  king,  after 


14    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand.  He  has  to  chide  the  Apostles  for 
their  strife  as  to  precedence  (Mk.  10, 42  ff.,  cp.  John  13,  12  ff.); 
yet  even  here  the  gentleness  and  lofty  plane  of  His  reproof,  (cp. 
Mk.  9,  33  ff.,)  indicates  that  their  ambitions  to  be  first  or  greatest 
were  not  rooted  in  self-aggrandisement  but  in  zeal  to  be  chief  in 
devotion  to  Him  and  in  self-sacrifice  for  His  cause.  His  own  satis- 
faction and  approval  is  expressed  in  the  facts  that  He  chose  them 
as  His  Apostles  'that  they  might  be  with  Him,'  (Mk.  3,  14); 
and  that  at  the  last  He  calls  them  'no  longer  servants  but  friends,' 
(John  15, 15). 

Their  spiritual  receptivity  expressed  in  their  penitential  devo- 
tion and  in  their  desire  for  messianic  salvation,  was  definitely 
evoked  by  the  Baptist's  preaching  of  the  presence  among  them 
of  an  unknown  "mightier  one"  fitted  to  inaugurate  the  Kingdom. 
All  men  were  in  expectation,  (Lk.  3,  15),  and  the  question  arises 
at  this  point,  whether  the  Baptist  left  them  to  discover  or  to 
recognize  the  Coming  One  for  themselves;  or  whether  he  directly 
testified  in  addition  that  Jesus  was  He  of  whom  he  spoke.  In 
the  Fourth  Gospel,  after  Jesus'  baptism,  there  is  reported  the 
Baptist's  direct  testimony  to  a  group  of  his  disciples  that  Jesus 
is  the  Lamb  of  God  and  Son  of  God,^  who  has  the  Spirit  abiding 
on  Him  and  who  will  Himself  baptize  with  the  Spirit.  All  these 
titles  and  descriptions  express  his  messianic  character.  Even  if 
viewed  as  originating  with  the  Evangelist,  they  express  his  claim, 
which  is  repeated  in  3,  26;  5,  33-36;  10,  41;  that  the  Baptist  gave 
a  personal  testimony  to  Jesus  as  related  to  the  messianic  Kingdom. 
This  claim  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  may  be  tested  by  the  references 
to  their  relations  in  the  Synoptics  and  Acts.  In  the  smnmaries 
of  the  Oral  Gospel  in  Acts  10,  37  ff.  and  13,  24  f.,  among  the  fixed 
lines  of  proof  of  Jesus'  messiahship  is  the  ministry  of  the  Baptist. 
Paul  in  his  synagogue  address  when  advancing  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment predictions  of  the  Christ  to  their  fulfihnent  in  Jesus,  begins 
with  a  reference  to  the  Baptist's  ministry  and  to  his  testimony 
to  the  coming  of  the  more  exalted  One.  Although  the  report  of 
the  address  does  not  contain  a  personal  testimony  of  the  Baptist 
to  Jesus,  yet  since  the  Apostle  is  not  here  concerned  to  give  in 
detail  a  history  of  the  Gospel  movement  to  which  the  Baptist's 
ministry  was  an  introduction,  but  to  give  the  several  lines  of 
» Zahn  adopts  the  reading  iKKeKrbs, 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  FAITH  15 

proof  of  Jesus'  messiahship,  the  prominence  of  his  reference  to  the 
Baptist  presents  the  probability  that  the  full  discourse  contained 
his  direct  testimony  in  support  of  the  Apostle's  thesis.  This 
probability  is  strengthened  by  the  similar  compressed  reference 
in  Peter's  oral  Gospel  to  CorneUus,  Acts  10,  37  f .  To  the  mention 
of  John's  baptism  is  added  the  statement  that  God  anointed  Jesus 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power.  If  with  commentators  in 
general,  Christ's  baptism  by  John  is  here  alluded  to,  the  report 
of  his  anointing  with  the  Spirit  would  naturally  come  from  the 
Baptizer  to  some  of  his  disciples;  and  it  would  be  in  itself  his 
testimony  to  them  of  Jesus'  messiahship.  Still  more  definitely  in 
the  Synoptic  Gospels,  Matthew  3,  13  ff.  reports  John's  impression 
of  Jesus'  excelling  spiritual  worth;  and  all  the  Synoptists  report 
the  descent  of  the  Spirit  at  Jesus'  baptism  and  the  heavenly  voice 
acclaiming  Him  as  Beloved  Son.  In  Mark  and  Luke  the  Voice 
is  addressed  to  Jesus.  But  a  consideration  of  the  narrative  itself 
supports  the  view  that  the  voice  was  heard  also  by  the  Baptist. 
For  an  audible  voice  would  not  be  needed  if  addressed  to  Christ 
alone;  and  there  is  no  ground  for  conceiving  this  theophany  as 
an  autobiographical  conmiunication  by  Christ.  The  First  Evan- 
gelist by  reporting  the  words  'This  is  my  beloved  Son,'  indicates 
as  does  the  Fourth  Evangelist  that  the  theophany  was  not  only 
Jesus'  spiritual  experience,  but  was  as  well  a  divine  conmiunica- 
tion to  His  prophet  on  the  Jordan.  As  such  it  would  be  the  basis 
of  his  conviction  of  Jesus'  office  and  of  his  direct  testimony  to 
Him. 

A  well-known  objection  is  raised  against  the  Baptist's  convic- 
tion and  testimony  to  Jesus'  messiahship  in  view  of  his  later  mes- 
sage, 'Art  Thou  He  that  cometh  or  look  we  for  another'  (Mtw. 
11,  2  ff.,  Lk.  7,  18  ff.  from  Q).  But  upon  examination  the  section 
directly  supports  the  other  indications  of  John's  personal  testi- 
mony to  Jesus.  The  Baptist's  question  does  not,  as  Loisy  and 
others  suppose,  express  his  dawning  sense  that  Jesus'  works  may 
be  pointing  Him  out  as  Messiah.  Such  a  theory  is  at  once  seen 
to  be  inconsistent  with  Mtw.  11,  6,  the  warning  in  the  beatitude: 
'blessed  is  he  whosoever  shall  find  no  occasion  of  stumbling  in 
me.'  And  this  warning  points  to  an  earlier  conviction  of  Jesus' 
messiahship,  now  clouded  with  perplexity  concerning  Jesus'  min- 
istry and  works  of  mercy  and  pardon,  in  utter  contrast  to  the 


16    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

dread  work  of  initial  judgment  which  the  Baptist  had  expected 
and  preached.  Had  there  been  no  such  earlier  personal  convic- 
tion in  regard  to  Jesus,  we  can  conceive  of  no  ground  for  the 
Baptist's  perplexity.  And  that  there  had  been  this  conviction 
and  a  personal  testimony  to  Jesus,  is  equally  the  assumption 
imderlying  Christ's  emphatic  testimony  to  John  as  a  prophet  and 
more  than  a  prophet.  Such  a  vindication  would  be  needed  only 
if  the  multitude  had  learned  that  John  had  given  some  personal 
witness  to  Jesus  with  a  prophet's  certainty,  and  now  seemed  to 
be  wavering  or  in  perplexity  concerning  his  earUer  witness.  If,  on 
the  contrary,  his  testimony  had  been  simply  that  the  Kingdom 
was  inaminent  and  that  the  unknown  mightier  One  was  among 
them,  there  would  have  been  no  occasion  to  reassure  the  multitude 
that  John  was  still  a  prophet  despite  his  perplexed  inquiry  con- 
cerning Jesus. 

One  clear  result  of  the  Baptist's  ministry  was  that  the  Apostles' 
discipleship  to  Jesus  was  from  the  first  based  on  their  messianic 
interest  in  Him.  This  can  be  recognized  in  the  Marcan  account 
of  the  first  association  of  the  Four  with  Jesus  upon  His  call:  Come 
after  me  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men  (Mk.  1,  16).  The 
explanation  of  their  immediate  response,  with  the  sacrifice  of  home 
and  Ufework,  is  in  the  Marcan  statements  introducing  it.  It  is 
the  result  of  the  Baptist's  ministry  and  announcement  of  the  im- 
minent coming  of  the  inaugurator  of  the  messianic  kingdom;  of 
his  personal  witness,  as  indicated  above,  to  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
as  the  Messiah  at  His  baptism;  and  of  Jesus'  preaching  that  the 
time  is  fulfilled  and  the  Kingdom  at  hand.  To  'come  after'  Him, 
was  therefore  to  be  associated  with  His  preaching  of  the  messianic 
kingdom.  To  leave  all  'for  His  sake  and  the  Gospel's  sake,'  (Mk. 
10,  28  f .)  showed  that  they  recognized  in  Him  the  One  mightier 
than  the  Baptist,  who  made  no  demand  for  personal  following, 
and  called  for  no  sacrifice  or  abandonment  of  their  homes.  Yet 
the  call  is  so  abrupt;  the  sacrifice  to  be  made  is  so  absolute;  the 
nature  of  the  new  work  so  undefined,  that  the  question  constantly 
arises  in  view  of  the  seemingly  mutual  understanding  between 
the  Four  and  Christ  and  of  their  alacrity  to  respond,  whether 
Mark's  account  does  not  point  to  an  earher  acquaintance  and 
relationship.  Luke's  rearrangement  of  the  Marcan  order  of  the 
events  in  this  section  implies  his  intention  to  supply  grounds  on 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  FAITH  17 

which  the  prompt  obedience  of  the  Four  can  be  more  clearly 
understood.  He  places  the  group  of  miracles  and  the  first  preach- 
ing tour  which  in  Mark,  (1,  21-39,)  immediately  follow  their  call, 
immediately  before  the  call  (Lk.  4,  31-44).  The  call  itself  is  ac- 
companied by  a  miraculous  draught  of  fishes;  and  the  whole  sec- 
tion is  introduced  by  Jesus'  visit  and  sermon  in  Nazareth.  In 
this  arrangement  the  response  to  the  call  was  the  result  of  the 
impression  of  Christ's  personality.  His  gracious  word  and  His 
words  with  power,  His  miracles,  one  of  which  had  been  wrought 
in  Peter's  home  and  one  in  the  sphere  of  His  work;  and  probably 
in  Luke's  intention  was  also  the  result  of  their  knowledge  of  His 
claim  in  Nazareth  (4,  21)  that  the  messianic  prophecy  was  ful- 
filled in  His  Gospel  preaching.  While  this  rearrangement  pro- 
vides the  necessary  explanation  of  the  response  of  the  Four  to 
the  call  to  follow  Jesus  in  His  messianic  work,  it  is  not  based 
except  in  the  Nazareth  narrative  taken  from  Luke's  special  source, 
on  any  source  other  than  Mark.  All  indications,  however,  point 
to  the  probability  that  Mark  has  here  preserved  the  historical 
sequence  of  the  events  connected  with  this  call  of  the  Four.  In 
such  case  their  messianic  interest  in  Jesus,  and  their  personal 
faith  in  Him  is  not  accounted  for  by  their  previous  relations  with 
Him  in  Galilee.  It  is,  however,  definitely  accounted  for  by  their 
earUer  acquaintance  with  Him  as  recorded  in  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
to  which  we  will  now  turn. 

According  to  the  Fourth  Gospel,  a  ministry  of  probably  a  year's 
duration  and  principally  in  Judea,  (John  1  to  5,)  preceded  the  call 
of  the  Four  to  join  Him  in  a  new  form  of  ministry  in  Galilee. 
When  this  is  accepted,  their  call  and  their  response,  (Mk.  1,  16  ff.,) 
is  fully  explained  along  the  lines  of  Luke's  indications  of  the  prep- 
aration needed  to  receive  and  obey  the  call.  This  preparation  is 
shown  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  as  the  result  of  their  previous  personal 
acquaintance  and  association  with  Christ  and  with  His  teaching 
and  work. 

Without  entering  into  the  discussion  of  the  critical  question 
raised  by  the  contrasted  Synoptic  and  Johannine  types  of  Gospel, 
it  will  suffice  for  the  present  purpose  to  indicate  the  Johannine 
view  of  Christ's  Judean  ministry,  and  to  recognize  that  if  it  was 
historical  it  would  naturally  issue  into  the  form,  method  and 
character  of  the  Galilean  ministry  of  the  Synoptics. 


18    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  public  ministry  is  first  addressed  to  the 
nation,  corporately.  Christ's  pubhc  self-manifestation  begins 
appropriately  at  the  nation's  capital;  during  the  national  feast;  in 
the  national  shrine;  and  before  the  nation's  rulers.  His  first  act  of 
cleansing  the  Temple  is  a  revelation  of  His  will  to  purify  the 
nation  preparatory  to  the  inauguration  of  the  Kingdom.  As 
messianic  king,  He  manifests  His  authority;  much  more,  claims 
God  as  His  own  Father.  His  discourse  with  Nicodemus,  a  ruler  of 
the  Jews,  is  replete  with  even  more  definite  and  profounder  self- 
revelations.  This  initial  self-presentation  having  ended  in  practi- 
cal rejection.  He  engages  in  supplementing  the  work  of  the  Baptist 
in  purifying  and  preparing  the  nation;  and  finally  returns  to 
Jerusalem,  (John  5),  to  compel  the  nation's  leaders  to  a  definite 
decision.  By  His  Sabbath  miracle  he  evokes  the  rulers'  attacks  on 
His  work  and  claim;  meets  it  by  most  definite  declarations  of  His 
Sonship;  and  supports  these  by  several  lines  of  witnesses,  (5,  31  ff.). 
The  rulers'  rejection  of  Him  and  their  resolve  to  kill  Him,  ends 
this  Judean  ministry.  Such  rejection  by  the  rulers  of  the  Church 
of  Israel  in  Judea  naturally  determines  the  scene,  character  and 
methods  of  His  subsequent  ministry,  as  we  find  it  recorded  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels.  It  is  a  ministry  in  GaUlee;  is  addressed  to  indi- 
viduals; is  characterized  by  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom, 
which  gradually  transforms  both  by  word  and  deed  the  zealotic, 
Pharisaic  and  popular  conceptions  of  it;  and  in  connection  with 
this  preaching,  it  is  further  characterized  by  the  beginnings  of 
organization  of  the  Kingdom  by  personal  calls  to  discipleship  and 
apostleship.  When  therefore  the  Fourth  Gospel's  early  Judean 
ministry  is  regarded  as  historical,  the  beginnings  of  the  Apostles' 
faith  are  not  to  be  sought  at  their  call  in  Mk.  1,  16,  to  the  new 
work  of  the  Galilean  ministry,  but  in  connection  with  their  first 
meeting  with  Christ,  in  the  previous  year,  as  recorded  in  John  1, 
35  to  2,  11. 

It  is,  however,  constantly  urged  as  an  objection  to  the  historicity 
of  this  section,  that  these  first  disciples  recognized  immediately 
that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah.  The  Evangelist  in  fact  records  this 
recognition  in  clearest  terms;  and  his  record  shows  itself  to  be 
inherently  probable,  since  it  shows  that  this  recognition  would  be 
the  reasonable  outcome  both  of  their  expectations  and  also  of  the 
impression  made  upon  them  by  Jesus  at  their  first  meeting  with 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  FAITH  19 

Him.  For  they  came  to  Him  as  men  made  expectant  by  the 
Baptist's  preaching  for  the  appearance  of  Messiah;  and  still  more 
definitely,  if  John  and  the  Synoptics  have  been  rightly  interpreted, 
as  men  possessing  the  Baptist's  personal  witness  to  Jesus.  They 
were  besides,  men  with  spiritual  receptivity  for  Jesus'  self-revela- 
tions; and  it  is  this  which  is  distinctly  emphasized  by  the  Evangel- 
ist as  the  condition  for  the  genesis  of  their  faith. 

To  these  expectant,  open-hearted  men  the  initial  belief  in  Jesus' 
Messiahship  had  as  its  foundation  and  as  the  coefficient  of  all 
other  forms  of  witness,  Jesus'  own  personality.  His  self-witness  in 
His  life  and  character  of  holiness  and  love;  His  words  such  as 
never  man  spake  and  as  they  were  now  heard  for  the  first  time; 
His  power  to  pierce  down  into  their  own  lives  and  personaHties,  and 
find  them;  His  spiritual  exaltation  and  serenity  that  yet  shared 
their  abode,  journeys  and  life  in  meekness  and  lowliness;  in  a  word 
His  unique  and  incomparable  Presence  constrained  their  reverence, 
affection  and  devotion  of  faith.  That  faith  in  Andrew  and  his 
companion  is  the  direct  outcome  of  their  abiding  with  Jesus  that 
first  day.  Peter's  discovery  of  the  Christ  in  Jesus,  rests  on  Jesus' 
discovery  of  him;  on  His  penetrating  insight  into  Peter's  inmost 
life  and  future  growth  in  character.  Philip  came  and  saw  in  Jesus' 
personality,  words  and  character,  the  mightier  and  worthier  One  of 
whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  wrote  and  to  whom  the  Baptist 
witnessed.  Nathanael,  with  the  same  expectancy  yet  with  de- 
mands for  a  supreme  type  of  holiness  and  divine  fellowship,  rec- 
ognizes the  Christ  in  Jesus'  supernatural  knowledge  of  his  own 
inner  fife  of  devotion;  and  receives  the  promise  of  still  greater 
divine  witness  to  Him.  If  earlier  the  crowds  mused  in  their  hearts 
whether  the  Baptist  were  the  Christ,  and  if  later  the  crowds,  with 
far  less  intimate  association  with  Jesus  debated  whether  He  were 
the  Christ,  there  is  no  reason  to  set  aside  the  Johannine  record  that 
under  the  soul-stirring  impression  of  the  personality  of  Jesus, 
the  earliest  disciples  became  His  followers  under  the  conviction  of 
His  messianic  character.  This  same  conviction  reappears  in  and 
furnishes  the  needed  explanation  of  the  Synoptic  record,  (Mk.  1, 
16  and  pUs.,)  of  their  prompt  sacrifice  of  all  earthly  interests  and  of 
their  self-devotion  to  His  service,  in  the  belief  that  His  work  was  to 
be  messianic  work  and  that  he  was  essentially  related  to  the 
Kingdom. 


20    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

A  further  development  of  this  initial  belief  as  recorded  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  into  the  definite  faith  of  their  later  confessions  and 
ultimate  convictions,  was  obviously  required  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  on  their  first  association  with  Him  there  was  as  yet  no  mani- 
festation of  what  to  them  were  some  of  the  essential  messianic 
characteristics.  The  Man  of  despised  Nazareth  exhibited  no 
external  feature  of  the  glorious  Messiah  of  the  Old  Testament 
predictions.  He  gave  no  indication  of  beginning  the  messianic 
judgment  which  the  Baptist  announced.  His  references  to  the 
Kingdom,  both  in  the  early  chapters  of  John  and  equally  in  the 
Galilean  preaching  in  the  Synoptics  were  at  variance  with  the 
current  apocalyptic  expectations.  Their  continued  faith  in  Him 
despite  the  continued  absence  of  these  messianic  features,  points, 
therefore,  to  their  developing  recognition  and  acceptance  of  the 
character  of  His  Messiahship  as  He  revealed  it  to  them.  We 
can  mark  critical  stages  of  this  development  not  only  in 
the  Synoptics  at  Peter's  confession,  (Mk.  8,  29,)  but  also 
in  John.  Long  after  the  initial  confessions  in  the  first  chap- 
ter of  John,  we  find  Peter's  confession,  *'We  have  believed 
and  know  that  Thou  are  the  Holy  One  of  God,"  (Jno.  6, 
69);  and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Last  Supper  the  Eleven 
confess,  "  Now  know  we  that  Thou  knowest  all  things:  by 
this  we  believe  that  Thou  camest  forth  from  God,"  (Jno.  16, 
30). 

The  method  of  developing  their  faith  in  the  Christ  as  Jesus 
revealed  Himself  to  be,  in  contrast  to  the  Christ  of  the  current 
messianism,  is  identical  in  both  the  Johannine  and  Synoptic  rec- 
ords. It  is  already  forecast  in  His  attitude  to  the  professions  of  his 
Messiahship  made  by  the  first  disciples  in  John  1,  41  ff.  Although 
they  employ  a  full  series  of  definite  messianic  titles,  He  Himself 
while  not  disavowing  them,  describes  Himself  by  none  of  them. 
He  calls  Himself  the  Son  of  Man.  It  is  His  self-chosen  title  in 
response  to  His  disciples'  willingness  to  regard  Him  as  the  Christ. 
By  His  use  of  it  in  all  the  Gospels,  He  transformed  the  leading 
contemporary  conceptions  of  the  Messiah  and  of  the  Messianic 
Kingdom.  What  He,  in  whom  the  first  disciples  believe  they  have 
found  the  Christ,  truly  is  as  the  Son  of  Man,  will  be  revealed  in  the 
historic  progress  of  His  life;  and  more  definitely  by  His  statements 
concerning  Himself  as  the  Son  of  Man  and  by  the  various  Old 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  FAITH  21 

Testament  uses  of  the  tenii.^  At  the  definite  crises  in  John  and. the 
Synoptics  when  He  will  test  the  growth  and  character  of  their  faith 
in  Him,  it  is  in  connection  with  His  use  of  this  self-designation. 
When  many  of  His  disciples  went  back  and  He  appealed  to  the 
Twelve:  Would  ye  also  go  away,  the  occasion  was  His  statements 
concerning  Himself  as  the  Son  of  Man  in  John  6,  27,  53  and  62. 
Similarly  Peter's  confession  at  Caesarea  PhiUppi  is  in  response  to 
the  demand :  Who  do  men  say,  do  ye  say  that  the  Son  of  Man  is 
(Mtw.  16,  13).  In  both  instances,  to  the  responsive  faith  of  Peter 
and  the  Apostles,  the  Son  of  Man  as  Jesus  had  revealed  Himself  to 
be,  was  reaUzed  to  be  indeed  the  Christ  of  their  first  hopes  and 
professions.  The  addition  in  Mtw.  16,  17:  the  Son  of  the  Hving 
God,  which  Sanday  is  disposed  to  accept,  {H.  D.  B.,  IV,  572  a, 
574  b)  in  spite  of  Dahnan's  rejection  of  it  (Words  of  Jesus,  p.  274), 
recalls  that  along  with  the  self-designation  as  the  Son  of  Man, 
was  Jesus'  constant  interest  in  presenting  His  Messianic  work 
as  related  to  His  Sonship  to  God.  He  who  is  the  Son  of  Man 
brings  also  the  complete  revelation  of  the  Father's  Ufe  and 
truth  and  of  His  Father's  grace  in  the  estabUshment  of  the 
kingdom  of  redemption.^ 

The  mode  of  this  revelation  of  Himself  to  His  Apostles  as  the 
Son  of  Man  and  the  Son  of  God,  in  order  to  impart  to  them  true 
conceptions  of  the  person  and  work  of  the  Christ  they  beUeved  they 
had  found  in  Him,  is  most  intimate  personal  association  with 
Himself.  In  the  several  recorded  calls  to  disciples,  the  invitation 
is  primarily  to  share  His  life  and  experiences;  to  imbibe  His  teach- 
ings; to  cooperate  in  His  work;  to  be  identified  with  Him  in  spirit: 
in  the  phrase  of  the  Gospels,  'Ho  be  with  Him."  The  Synoptics 
and  John  are  at  one  in  this  view  of  the  basis  of  discipleship.  In 
John  the  first  two  followers  seek  this  personal  fellowship:  "Where 
dwellest  Thou";  and  are  welcomed  with:  ''Come  and  ye  shall 

2  Dalman,  Words  of  Jesus,  IX,  6,  holds,  however,  that  the  investigation  of 
the  statements  in  which  Jesus  designates  Himself  as  the  Son  of  Man  leads, 
in  view  of  their  multiformity,  to  no  result  in  the  determination  of  its  meaning. 
He  decides  that  Christ  took  the  title  from  Dan.  7, 13,  and  very  probably  found 
'The  Son  of  Man'  of  Dan.  7  in  Ps.  8,  5  ff.  also.  Others  whose  positions  are 
summarized  by  N.  Schmidt,  Ency.  Bib.  s.  v.  Son  of  Man,  §  24,  consider  that 
several  other  O.  T.  passages  and  ideas  are  united  in  the  self -designation. 

» Cp.  Sanday,  H.  D.  B.,  IV,  576  a,  who  also  refers  to  Holtzmann,  N.  T. 
Theologie  I,  p.  281  f. 


22    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

see.*'  Their  confession  of  faith  is  the  outcome  of  the  fact  that  they 
*' abode  with  Him."  Philip  is  called  to  follow  Him,  first  on  His 
journey  to  GaUlee.  Nathanael  is  invited  to  'come  and  see'  Him, 
in  following  whom  for  one  day,  Philip  had  been  convinced  of  the 
fulfillment  in  Him  of  the  Old  Testament  predictions. 

In  Mk.  1,  16,  the  Four  are  called  to  be  trained  as  fishers  of  men. 
Yet  the  sole  method  of  training  is:  'Come  ye  after  me.'  The 
Apostles  are  chosen,  (Mk.  3,  14,)  for  definite  work;  and  again,  the 
aim  in  their  selection  is:  "that  they  might  be  with  Him"  and 
thereby  be  trained  for  His  work.  Their  Lord's  description  of  them 
at  the  close  of  His  life  is:  'ye  that  have  continued  with  me,  oi 
hiaixeiievqKbrts  juer'  €/ioO,  in  my  temptations'  (Lk.  22,  28;  cp.  Jno. 
15, 1  to  17).  The  Sanhedrin,  (Acts  4, 13,)  account  for  the  Apostles' 
boldness  by  recognizing  that  they  had  been  with  Jesus.  Similarly 
the  Apostles  describe  His  ministry  as  the  whole  period  in  which 
He  'went  in  and  went  out  among  us,'  from  the  Baptist's  ministry 
until  the  Ascension.'*  They  are  to  be  his  witnesses,  (Jno.  15,  27), 
because:  'ye  have  been  with  me  from  the  beginning.'  In  contrast 
to  the  three  classes  in  the  Parable  of  the  Sower  in  whom  Christ's 
ministry  made  no  lasting  impression,  these  Apostles  were  neither 
hardened  by  prejudice,  nor  moved  by  a  merely  superficial  interest, 
nor  lacking  in  detachment  from  worldly  interests.  But  with  open- 
hearted,  whole-hearted  and  single-hearted  devotion,  they  an- 
swered the  call,  'Follow  me.'  And  in  their  continuous  most  in- 
timate association  and  communion  of  life  with  Him,  they  were 
experiencing  as  the  true  foundation  of  their  belief  in  Him  as  the 
Christ  who  was  to  redeem  Israel,  the  fulfiUment  in  themselves  of 
His  promise:  Come  unto  me;  learn  of  me;  and  ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls. 

For  in  their  coming  and  learning  of  Him  in  closest  intimacy  of 
a  common  life  shared  by  Him  and  them,  He  was  able  most  fully 
to  reveal  Himself.  As  He  went  about  with  them  doing  good,  as 
He  taught  them  in  public  or  instructed  them  in  private,  as  He 
spent  His  whole  life  among  them,  they  recognized  His  perfect 
filial  spirit;  His  abiding  communion  with  the  Father;  His  absolute 

*  Thayer-Grimm,  s.  v.  fX<TipxO}ia.i,  1  a:  'to  go  in  and  out,'  representing  a 
Hebrew  phrase,  "is  used  of  familiar  intercourse  with  one."  'Eia-  and 
iKTTOpevo^ai  (Acts  9,  28)  is  used  similarly  of  St.  Paul's  life  in  Jerusalem, 
cp.  Gal.  1,  18. 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  FAITH  23 

obedience  and  devotion  to  the  Father's  will;  His  purity  and  sin- 
lessness;  His  brotherly  love  for  men  as  His  Father's  children;  His 
hope  for  the  world's  salvation  and  His  self-devotion  to  its  ac- 
complishment at  any  cost  of  struggle  and  supreme  self-sacrifice. 
They  saw  in  Him  one  that  serves;  that  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister.  In  contrast  to  the  wicked  husbandmen  in 
the  parable,  (Mk.  12,  6)  they  reverenced  the  Son. 

The  correlate  of  this  self-witness  of  His  life  and  character  as 
Son,  was  the  witness  of  the  Father.  They  saw  reflected  in  Him 
and  expressed  by  Him  the  spirit,  love  and  will  of  God.  For  shar- 
ing His  life  of  communion  with  God  in  prayer  and  loving  service, 
they  realized  more  and  more  that  they  were  living  with  Him  in 
the  divine  presence.  Just  as  "we  turn  again  and  again  to  the 
portraiture  of  his  divine  presence  which  lives  in  the  Gospels,  to 
every  trait  of  holiness,  of  sacrifice,  of  mercy,  of  calm  reproof  and 
gracious  encouragement,"  so  they  knew  as  "we  know,  that  in  these 
we  have  the  image  of  our  Father."  ^  Throughout  the  Synoptic 
Gospels,  He  based  all  His  teachings,  acts,  promises,  sufferings,  and 
offices  on  the  assertions  that  they  were  the  expressions  of  the 
Father's  will,  truth,  power  and  redeeming  love.  Their  acceptance 
of  this  claim  was  based  on  their  recognition  of  the  direct  divine 
witness  to  this  perfect  revelation  of  God's  Fatherhood  in  Jesus' 
fife  of  Sonship.  "As  soon  as  the  thought  of  Hhe  Fatherhood  of 
God'  is  gained,  it  is  felt  that  *the  Son'  expresses  it  absolutely. 
The  witness  of  the  perfect  coincidence  therefore  finds  its  cogency 
in  the  response  which  it  calls  out  from  the  soul  of  man.  Man 
recognizes  the  voice  as  naturally  and  supremely  authorita- 
tive." ^ 

The  indications  of  this  claim  of  divine  witness  and  of  the  Apostles' 
recognition  of  it,  which  are  inwoven  in  the  Synoptic  tradition  are 

^  Westcott,  Revelation  of  the  Father,  p.  143.  Similarly  H.  R.  Mackintosh, 
Expository  Times,  Vol.  27,  p.  346  ff.,  The  Revelation  of  God  in  Christ:  "It 
is  still  as  true  as  in  the  first  century  that  Jesus  'reflects  God's  bright  glory  and 
is  stamped  with  God's  own  character,'  Heb.  1,  3.  All  that  we  have  to  say 
(and  it  is  much)  about  the  unveiling  of  God  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  the 
course  of  history  and  the  constitution  of  man,  or  in  the  world  of  Nature, 
must  be  subsumed  under,  and  controlled  by,  the  self -delineation  he  has  given 
in  our  Lord.'  And,  *we  are  made  immediately  aware  that  in  this  Man  God  is 
personally  present.' 

•  Westcott,  St.  John,  p.  XLV. 


24    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

paralleled  and  developed  in  the  constant  direct  statements  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel.  The  definite  assertions  of  this  divine  witness  in 
John  5,  31  ff.,  7,  16  ff.,  8,  18  ff.,  etc.,  are  summed  up  at  the  close 
of  the  ministry,  (Jno.  14,  8  ff .)  in  the  reply  to  Philip's  request, 
"Show  us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us:  Have  I  been  so  long 
time  with  you,  and  dost  thou  not  know  Me?  He  that  has  seen 
Me  hath  seen  the  Father.  Believest  thou  not  that  I  am  in  the 
Father  and  the  Father  in  Me?  The  Father  abiding  in  Me  doeth 
His  works." 

The  witness  of  the  Son  and  the  Father  is  combined  in  the  wit- 
ness of  His  words.  As  in  Mk.  9,  10,  the  three  disciples  seized  and 
clung  to  His  word  concerning  the  resurrection,^  so  the  Synoptics 
constantly  report  his  word  as  filling  the  multitudes  now  with  as- 
tonishment at  their  power  and  authority;  and  now  with  wonder 
as  being  words  of  grace.  In  all  cases  they  were  words  that  to 
them  that  had  ears  to  hear,  revealed  and  illuminated  the  Father's 
will,  the  Old  Testament  revelation,  the  mysteries  of  the  Kingdom, 
the  secrets  of  human  hearts.  If  even  the  multitudes  pressed  upon 
Him  to  hear  in  this  witness  of  His  words  the  word  of  God,  and  the 
common  people  heard  Him  gladly,  we  can  the  better  realize  the 
influence  of  His  words  in  the  genesis  of  the  faith  of  the  Apostles, 
who  were  the  constant  hearers  both  of  His  public  teaching  and 
of  His  private  instruction;  and  who  accepted  it  as  the  revelation 
of  the  Father  who  has  deUvered  all  things  to  the  Son,  (Mt.  11,  27,) 
whose  words  shall  not  pass  away.  The  Fourth  Gospel  but  repeats 
this  Synoptic  view  of  the  impressiveness,  authority  and  compelling 
force  of  the  witness  of  His  words.  It  is  the  Temple  officers  of  the 
common  people,  (Jno.  7,  49.46)  who  say:  Never  man  so  spake! 
It  is  the  Apostles  who  say:  Thou  hast  words  of  eternal  fife,  (Jno. 
6,  68).  It  is  Jesus  Himself  who  declares:  I  spake  not  from  Myself; 
but  the  Father  hath  given  Me  a  commandment  what  I  should 
say  and  what  I  should  speak,  (Jno.  12,  49). 

The  Synoptics  and  John  share  the  same  view  of  Christ's  works : 
they  are  the  witnesses  of  the  Father  to  Him  and  through  Him. 
In  Luke  11,  20,  his  exorcisms  are  by  the  finger  of  God:  in  the 
Matthew  parallel,  (12,  28,)  they  are  by  the  Spirit  of  God.    Simi- 

'  Gould,  St.  Mark  in  loc.  shows  this  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  Evangelist, 
and  not  as  B.  Weiss  holds:  they  observed  the  command  of  silence  in 
vs.  9. 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THE  APOSTLES'  FAITH  25 

larly  in  John,  (14,  10) :  the  Father  abiding  in  Me  doeth  His  works; 
and  the  works  which  the  Father  hath  given  Me  to  accomplish 
bear  witness  of  Me  that  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  (5,  36).  They 
are  thus  not  merely  evidences  of  His  Messiahship,  but  revelations 
of  the  redemptive  power  in  His  life.  They  are  a  divine  witness  to 
His  Sonship;  and  definitely,  to  the  power  and  purpose  of  His 
Sonship  to  reveal  and  accompUsh  the  Father's  redeeming  will 
through  the  Son's  administration  of  the  Father's  sovereignty. 

This  fourfold  witness  in  the  revelation  of  Himself  in  the  closest 
intimacy  and  communion  of  Ufe  with  the  Twelve,  was  steadily 
developing  their  faith  to  recognize  in  such  a  Son  of  Man  and  Son 
of  God,  the  fulfillment  both  of  the  Old  Testament  ideals  and  re- 
demptive prophecies  and  also  of  the  Baptist's  predictions  of  the 
coming  One,  bringing  in  the  Messianic  Kingdom  with  its  gifts  of 
the  Spirit:  even  the  faith  to  recognize  Him  as  the  Christ  of  God. 

The  several  lines  of  witness  to  Christ  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  are 
grouped  and  discussed  by  Westcott,  Gospel  of  St.  John,  pp.  XLIV 
to  XLVII:  The  Truth  and  the  Witness.  He  points  out  seven 
types  of  witness  which  "cover  the  whole  range  of  the  possible 
proof  of  rehgious  truth,  internal  and  external.  The  witness  of 
the  Father  and  of  Christ  Himself  is  internal,  and  rests  on  the 
correspondence  of  the  Gospel  with  that  absolute  idea  of  the  divine 
which  is  in  man.  The  witness  of  works  and  of  Scripture  is  ex- 
ternal and  historical  and  draws  its  force  from  the  signs  which  the 
Gospel  gives  of  fulfilUng  a  divine  purpose.  The  witness  of  the 
prophet  and  of  the  disciples  is  personal  and  experiential  and  lies 
in  the  open  declaration  of  what  men  have  found  the  Gospel  to  be. 
Lastly,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  is  for  the  behever  the  crown  of 
assurance  and  the  pledge  of  the  progress  of  the  Truth."  The 
subject  is  discussed  in  further  detail  in  his  exegesis  of  Chap.  5, 
31  to  47:  The  witness  to  the  Son  and  the  ground  of  unbeHef. 

Along  with  these  forms  of  witness  was  developing  the  witness  in 
themselves:  a  growth  of  sympathy,  union  and  identification  with 
His  own  mind,  spirit  and  life.  The  Yea  of  His  self -witness  had 
become  more  and  more  the  Amen  of  their  personal  experience. 
This  gradual  growth  into  the  mind  of  Christ  was  the  condition  of 
clearer  response  of  faith  to  His  increasing  self-revelations,  and  of 
distincter  understanding  of  His  teachings  concerning  the  Kingdom. 
The  development  can  be  traced  in  connection  both  with  His 


26    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

personal  ministry  to  the  Twelve,*  and  also  with  His  ministry  of 
inevitable  conflict,  which  issued  in  their  further  confirmation  in 
faith. 

'  As  in  Bruce,  Training  of  the  Twelve;  Latham,  Pastor  Pastorum:  the  School- 
ing of  the  Apostles  by  our  Lord,  1891;  Forrest,  The  Christ  of  History  and  of 
Experience,  1901:  Methods  of  Christ's  Self -manifestation,  pp.  106-128,  and 
esp.  to  the  Twelve,  p.  129  f. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  POLEMIC   IN  THE   GOSPELS 

We  have  already  recognized  that  conflict  would  be  an  inevitable 
accompaniment  of  Christ's  ministry.  On  what  issues  it  would 
arise  and  on  what  lines  it  would  be  conducted,  would  be  determined 
by  the  attitude,  expectations  and  spiritual  receptivity  of  the 
various  classes  of  the  nation.^  This  ministry  which  was  introduced 
by  the  Baptist  as  a  messianic  movement  and  was  adopted  as  such 
by  the  earliest  disciples,  challenged  attention  both  as  to  its  nation- 
aUst  character  and  also  as  to  its  reHgious  and  theological  features. 
Its  relation  to  Israel's  national  life  and  future,  which  would  in- 
volve its  relation  to  the  Roman  world-dominance,  was  obviously 
the  element  of  essential  interest  to  the  ruling  classes:  Roman 
officials,  Sadducean  rulers  and  Herodians;  and  at  the  other  ex- 
treme, of  the  party  of  Zealots:  the  irreconcilable  propagandists  of 
messianic  revolution.  On  the  other  hand,  its  relation  to  the 
reUgious  ideals  of  Israel's  written  and  Oral  Law  and  to  the  pre- 
dictions of  Israel's  prophets  and  apocalyptists,  would  be  the  direct 
concern  of  the  Pharisees  and  their  adherents,  whose  chief  interest 
was  in  rabbinism  and  in  varying  forms  of  apocalyptic  messianism; 
and  also  of  the  "Quiet  in  the  Land,"  like  the  group  in  Luke, 
Chaps.  1  and  2  and  in  24,  2L 

Although  Christ  was  finally  put  to  death  by  a  combination  of  the 
former  class  of  ruling  officials.  His  death  was  in  reality  the  outcome 
of  the  persistent  opposition  of  His  theological  opponents  in  the 
latter  group.  The  Sadducean  proposal,  (John  11,  49,)  to  make  the 
charge  that  continuance  of  Christ's  ministry  would  tend  to  stir  up 
sedition  against  Rome,  (vs.  48,)  is  evidently  a  change  of  poUcy. 
Hitherto  as  rulers  of  the  State  under  the  Romans,  they  had  let  Him 
go  on.    In  the  Fourth  Gospel  up  to  this  point,  there  has  been  no 

1  Schiirer,  H.  J.  P., 1 1,  Vol.  2,  pp.  4  ff.;  126  ff.;  188  f.;  Buhl,  H.  D.  B.  V,  p. 
45,  N.  T.  Times;  and  the  articles  in  H.  D.  B.  on  the  various  parties,,  with 
bibliographies;  G.  Hoennicke  Daa  Jitdenchristenthum,  p.  36  f. 


28    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

interference  by  Jewish  or  Roman  official  on  the  ground  of  danger 
of  a  political  character.  Similarly  in  the  Synoptics,  His  Galilean 
and  Perean  ministry  is  free  from  interference  and  from  controversy 
with  the  officials  of  Herod.  The  Herodians'  plan  to  destroy  Him, 
(Mk.  3,  6,)  was  characteristic  of  their  policy  to  forestall  any 
possible  issue  of  a  new  popular  movement,  so  closely  related  to 
that  of  the  Baptist,  who  was  now  in  Herod's  prison;  and  the 
Tetrarch's  wish  to  kill  Jesus,  (Luke  13,  31,)  seems  based  in  addi- 
tion on  his  superstitious  fears,  (Mk.  6,  14  ff.).  But  their  final  plot 
with  the  Pharisees  to  entangle  Him  through  a  decision  concerning 
tribute  to  Csesar,  shows  that  throughout  His  ministry  Christ  had 
successfully  avoided  any  poUtical  conflict  with  the  Jewish  or 
Imperial  authorities.  His  death  on  the  charge  of  sedition  first 
introduced  the  Jewish  charge  of  Christians'  disloyalty  to  Rome, 
which  meets  us  constantly  in  the  Apostohc  propaganda. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  any  direct  relation  or  controversy 
with  the  Zealots.  Both  their  intense  sympathy  with  Pharisaism, 
(Josephus,  Antiq.  18,  16,)  and  the  complete  absence  of  political 
messianism  in  Christ's  preaching  concerning  the  Kingdom,  would 
prevent  their  interest  in  His  Gospel.  If  the  thought,  (John  6,  15,) 
to  take  Him  by  force  and  make  Him  a  king,  proceeded  from  them, 
it  was  a  sudden  new  impulse;  and  it  was  immediately  dispelled  by 
Christ's  withdrawal.  The  fact  that  the  Apostle  Simon  is  called  a 
Zealot  is  insufficient  to  prove  that  Christ  had  relations  with  the 
party  in  general.  More  indeed  could  be  said  in  favor  of  Judas 
Iscariot's  interest  in  Christ  and  his  defection  as  having  been  based 
on  a  Zealot's  hope  and  disappointment.  His  defection  is  first 
mentioned  the  day  after  Christ's  refusal  to  be  king,  (John  6,  15. 
70  f .) ;  his  betrayal  of  Christ  occurs  the  day  after  Christ's  recogni- 
tion of  Caesar's  right  to  tribute. 

The  principal  element  of  controversy  in  the  Gospels  is  therefore 
connected  with  the  opposition  of  the  popular  leaders  of  the  relig- 
ious Ufe  and  teaching:  the  Pharisees  and  Scribes.  With  their 
attacks  the  Sadducean  and  Herodian  rulers  would  ordinarily  be  in 
sympathy.  At  times  they  would  be  the  allies  of  the  Pharisees, 
especially  in  Jerusalem;  but  at  length,  (John  11,  47  ff.,)  taunted 
them  with  their  ineffectiveness,  and  thereupon  took  upon  them- 
selves the  leadership  in  accomplishing  Christ's  destruction.  This 
persistent  pharisaic  opposition  was  evoked  not  by  direct  claims 


I 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  29 

of  messiahship,  but  by  the  same  method  of  self-revelation  as 
evoked  the  faith  of  the  Apostles.  Owing  to  the  avowed  aim  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  (20,  31,)  to  estabUsh  faith  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  is  due  the  prominence  of  the  controversies  in  which 
Christ's  self-affirmations  are  called  forth  by  the  denials  and 
rejections  of  His  opponents.^  In  the  Synoptics,  though  written 
with  wider  scope,  will  be  found  a  closely  similar  controversial 
element.  For  comparison,  we  first  trace  its  main  features  in  St. 
John.  There  the  opponents  are  ordinarily  ''the  Jews,"  five  times 
they  are  ''the  high  priests  and  Pharisees,"  (7,  32.45;  11,  47.57; 
18,  3);  in  general  they  are  the  hostile  rulers  and  leaders  of  the 
people.  That  the  Pharisees  are  the  prime  movers  in  the  concerted 
attacks  of  these  rulers  may  be  concluded  both  from  the  mentions  of 
their  direct  conflicts  with  Christ  and  from  the  statements  that  they 
were  the  principals  or  instigators  of  attacks  upon  Him,  (7,  32.47; 
9,  13  ff.;  11,  46;  12,  42).  It  is,  however,  no  doubt  true  that  'the 
Jews,'  (2,  18),  who  demand  a  sign  and  warrant  for  His  implicit 
claim  of  authority  over  the  Temple  and  the  national  life  and 
worship,  are  clearly  the  Sadducean  rulers,  in  control  of  the  Tem- 
ple.^ But  His  enigmatic  response,  which  neither  'the  Jews'  nor 
His  disciples  understood,  precluded  controversy  with  the  Sad- 
ducean questioners.  A  similar  treatment  of  the  Sanhedrin's  de- 
mand is  found  in  the  synoptic  account  of  the  Temple  cleansing, 
Mtw.  21,  23:  a  question  concerning  the  authority  of  the  Baptist, 
and  a  reference  (Mtw.  21,  42)  to  a  stone  rejected  by  the  Temple 
builders  becoming  the  corner  stone;  a  reference  repeated  in  Acts 
4, 11,  by  the  Apostles  in  reply  to  the  Sadducean  question  as  to  the 
source  of  their  miraculous  power. 

The  Pharisees,  however,  are  interested  first  of  all  in  Christ's 
teaching.  Parallel  with  the  synoptic  references  to  Christ's  fre- 
quent conciliatory  method  with  them,  we  can  recognize  in  John's 
brief  report  of  Christ's  meeting  with  Nicodemus,  (3,  1  to  15),  the 
essential  features  of  His  message  to  these  Pharisaic  Teachers  in 
Israel.  It  can  here  be  given  to  one  who  despite  lifelong  theological 
prepossessions  is  still  relatively  receptive,  and  who  besides  is  im- 
pressed with  the  loftiness  of  Jesus'  personal  character  and  with  the 

2  This  is  the  principal  thesis  elaborated  by  W.  Richmond  in  his  discussion 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel  as  the  Gospel  of  Rejection,  p.  28  flf. 
'  So  B.  Weiss:  'the  hierarchy  as  in  1,  19';  Edersheim:  'the  Temple  oflBcials.' 


30    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

spiritual  significance  of  His  miracles.  To  Him  the  Gospel  is  re- 
vealed as  supplanting  salvation  through  legalism  by  its  free  gift  of 
a  new  birth,  (vs.  3).  Jewish  particularism  and  sole  claim  of  divine 
election  to  the  blessings  of  the  Kingdom  is  refuted  by  the  assertion 
that  admission  to  the  Kingdom  is  the  universal  privilege  of  all  who 
accept  this  new  birth  from  God's  free  Spirit,  (vs.  5  to  8) .  Freedom 
from  legalism  and  particularism  upon  spiritual  rebirth,  points  also, 
(vs.  6),  to  a  Ufe  in  the  Spirit,  (cp.  Rom.  8,  2)  in  contrast  to  life  in 
the  flesh.  The  answer,  (vs.  11  to  13)  to  'how  these  things  can  be, ' 
is  that  this  Gospel  is  grounded  upon  his  personal  witness :  upon  the 
revelation  of  the  heavenly  things  in  Himself,  the  Son  of  Man  from 
heaven;  and  hkewise,  (vs.  14,  15),  upon  the  offer  to  faith  of  re- 
demption and  eternal  life  secured  in  the  Son  of  Man's  exaltation 
through  death.  Thus  the  Fourth  Gospel  presents  the  character- 
istic elements  of  Christ's  response  to  Pharisaic  interest  in  His 
teaching.  And  the  Evangelist's  comment,  (vs.  16  to  21),  states  the 
spiritual  principles  which  determine  their  acceptance  or  rejection 
of  this  Gospel  resting  on  Jesus'  claim  of  Sonship.  In  all  the  later 
controversies  with  the  Pharisees,  the  interest  necessarily  centers  on 
this  prior  fundamental  question  of  His  Sonship.  Upon  the  Sabbath 
healing  of  the  impotent  man  in  John  5,  He  claims  authority  to  heal 
on  the  Sabbath  by  reason  of  His  fiUal  union  with  the  Father, 
which  is  stated  in  most  explicit  and  absolute  terms,  (5,  19  to  30). 
He  again  offers  as  evidence  supporting  this  claim,  the  same  witness 
which  evoked  His  Apostles'  faith.  The  self-attestation  is  valid 
because  of  the  witness  of  the  Father  in  His  life  and  words,  (30.38  b. 
43  cp.  7,  16  to  18;  8,  26;  12,  49) ;  and  in  His  works,  'inclusive  of  all 
His  spiritual  ministry,'  (Riggs).  He  has  in  addition  the  prepara- 
tory prophetic  witness  of  the  Baptist,  (33  to  35) ;  and  the  Father's 
witness  to  Him  in  the  Old  Testament,  (37  to  40;  46.47).  Their 
rejection  of  all  these  forms  of  witness  is  due  to  their  rejection  of  the 
unifying  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  their  personal  experience.  They 
had  not  seen  in  Jesus'  words  and  Ufe  the  voice  and  form  of  God, 
(37.38),  because  they  had  not  'spiritual  aptitude  for  discerning  the 
presence  and  revelation  of  God,  however  and  wherever  made,' 
(Milligan-Moulton) ;  and  had  not  therefore  God's  word  abiding  in 
them;  and  had  not,  (41  to  44),  the  love  of  God  in  themselves, 
making  them  responsive  to  its  manifestation  in  Christ.  Finally 
their  charge,  (vs.  18),  that  He  is  destroying  the  Sabbath  is  turned 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  31 

against  themselves,  (41  to  47);  for  Moses  the  Lawgiver  is  their 
accuser  for  the  rejection  of  Him  to  whom  his  writings  and  institu- 
tions pointed.  Their  outward  zeal  for  the  law  became  spiritual 
rebelhon,  (Westcott). 

The  teachings  of  these  early  chapters  are  developed  along  the 
same  fundamental  lines  in  later  chapters,  leading  to  increasing 
definiteness  of  Christ's  self-revelation  and  claim,  and  to  fuller 
expUcation  of  the  essential  forms  of  witness.^  Before  considering 
the  controversies  of  those  chapters,  we  may  pass  to  the  conflicts  in 
the  Synoptics  which  intervened,  according  to  the  view  here  held 
that  the  events  in  John,  chaps.  1  to  5,  preceded  the  GaUlean  min- 
istry. 

In  the  Synoptics  Christ's  controversy  with  the  opposing  Jewish 
leaders  is  presented  in  its  relations  with  the  wider  range  of  interest 
and  topics  in  those  gospels,  and  is  given  in  several  distinct  sections. 
In  Mark  2,  1  to  3,  6,  are  recorded  five  conflicts  with  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  as  a  counterpart  to  the  initial  popular  enthusiasm  in  the 
GaUlean  ministry.  In  similar  contrast  to  increasing  popular  favor, 
is  given  in  3,  22  to  30,  Christ's  repulse  of  their  charge  of  league  with 
Beelzebul.  At  the  crisis  of  the  GaUlean  ministry  occurs  in  7,  1  to 
23,  his  definite  break  with  them  on  the  issue  of  the  Oral  Law. 
In  8,  11-13,  their  demand  for  a  sign  from  heaven  is  refused,  just 
before  the  Apostle's  confession  of  his  Messiahship.  FinaUy  in  12, 
38  to  40,  His  public  ministry  closes  with  a  summary  denunciation 
of  the  scribes. 

Matthew  incorporates  all  these  controversies,  and  in  the  Marcan 
sequence  of  the  sections  as  wholes.  In  addition,  he  repeats  in  12, 
38  ff.,  the  demand  for  a  sign.  With  the  Marcan  material  he  has 
combined  the  controversy  section  of  Q,  Two  topics  of  this  Q  sec- 
tion are  combined  with  Marcan  and  other  matter  to  form  Mat- 
thew's controversial  twelfth  Chapter;  and  its  last  topic  appears  as 
the  final  denunciation  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  in  Chap.  23. 

<Th.  Calmes,  UEvangile  selcm  SairU  Jean,  1904,  p.  296:  Toutes  les  dis- 
cussions que  Ton  rencontre  dans  le  IV®  fivang.  entre  J^us  et  les  Juifs,  ses 
ennemis,  roulentsur  un  m^me  fond  doctrinal:  divinity  et  ^ternit6  du  Verbe, 
son  union  avec  le  Pere,  sa  mission  r^demptrice.  Mais  ces  id^es  sont  rendues, 
selon  les  circonstances,  d'une  maniere  plus  ou  moins  explicite.  ...  La 
chose  en  question,  dans  les  disputes  que  reproduit  le  IV®  fivang.,  c'est  la 
mission  messianique  de  J^sus;  la  base  de  Targumentation,  c'est  son  caract^re 
divin. 


32    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Luke  reproduces  Mark's  first  and  last  group  in  the  same  position; 
omits  the  conflict  concerning  the  Oral  Law  and  the  demand  for  a 
sign  just  before  the  Day  at  Csesarea,  as  he  omits  the  whole  section  of 
Mark,  (6,  45  to  8,  26),  of  which  they  form  a  part.  But  both  of 
these  topics  and  the  Beelzebul  charge  appear  as  parts  of  a  special 
controversy  section,  11, 14  to  54,  formed  from  Q,  Mark  and  Luke's 
special  source  L.  This  section  is  imbedded  in  the  longer  section 
10,  25  to  18, 14,  containing  additional  reports  from  L  of  Christ's 
relations  with  scribes  and  Pharisees,  which  reproduce  his  experi- 
ences of  their  hostihty  and  his  teachings  concerning  them  and 
their  oppositions,  which  are  found  in  the  reports  of  Mark  and  Q. 
While  in  some  of  these  Marcan  sections  there  are  probably,  and  in 
their  Matthew  and  Luke  parallels  there  are  certainly  groupings  on 
a  topical  rather  than  a  chronological  basis,  yet  both  the  topics  of 
the  several  groups  and  the  naturalness  of  their  sequence  point 
strongly  to  the  general  correctness  of  their  chronological  arrange- 
ment in  Mk,  and  to  the  actual  stages  of  the  historic  progress  of  the 
controversy.  The  divergence  of  the  Lucan  order  of  the  conflicts 
will  be  considered  where  it  first  appears. 

1.  All  the  Synoptists  agree  in  recording  as  the  occasion  of  the 
first  conflicts  in  Galilee,  the  rising  tide  of  popular  enthusiasm 
caused  by  Christ's  preaching  and  miracles  of  healing.  On  the 
view  already  stated,  the  controversies  in  John,  Chaps.  1  to  5,  oc- 
curred before  the  opening  of  this  Galilean  ministry;  and  the  pres- 
ence of  the  scribes,  (Mk.  2,  6,)  or  Pharisees  and  doctors  of  the 
law,  (Mk.  5.17,)  would  indicate  their  purpose  to  inquire  into 
the  character  of  this  new  phase  and  method  of  ministry.  On  the 
opposite  view  that  Christ's  ministry  began  not  in  Judea  but  in 
Galilee,  we  find  that  His  first  preaching  tour  brings  these  religious 
leaders  to  Capernaum,  as  Luke  says  from  every  village  of  GaUlee, 
Judea  and  Jerusalem;  evidently  to  investigate  the  beginnings  of 
this  new  movement.  The  result  is  the  five  conflicts  in  Mk.  2, 
1  R. ;  and  in  the  same  position  in  Lk.  5,  17  ff .  In  connection  with 
the  First  Evangelist's  literary  plan,  the  first  three  conflicts  are 
presented  together  in  Mtw.  9,  1  to  17;  while  the  last  two  form  the 
introduction  to  the  next  controversy  section.  Chap.  12.*^    In  this 

» Summaries  of  literary  criticism  aflecting  this  Marcan  section  are  given 
in  Moffat's  Introduction,  p.  227  f.  His  own  view  (pp.  222,  231)  is  that  in  this 
'cycle  of  conflict  stories,  the  first  probably  existed  in  the  Ur-Marcus  in  a 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  33 

Marcan  section  and  indeed  in  all  the  Synoptic  reports  of  the 
Pharisaic  controversy,  it  is  noticeable  that  Christ  changes  from  the 
simpler  style  and  levels  of  GaUlean  peasant  instruction,  to  enig- 
matic and  profound  utterances  and  to  compressed  argumentative 
allusions,  such  as  He  uses  in  the  Johannine  discourses  addressed  to 
the  Pharisees  and  rulers.  Here  in  these  initial  Gahlean  conflicts, 
His  preaching  of  the  Kingdom  is  shown  in  act  and  word  to  be  in 
direct  contrast  to  dominant  features  of  pharisaism;  and  definitely 
to  their  conceptions  of  messianic  salvation  as  related  to  legalism, 
sacrifices,  ceremonial  fastings,  separation  from  all  things  or  men 
that  are  common  or  unclean,  and  to  a  rigorous  mechanical  view  of 
Old  Testament  revelation.  For  the  paralytic  is  granted  forgive- 
ness of  sins  freely,  without  reference  to  law  and  sacrifice.  One 
claiming  to  be  absolving  Son  of  Man,  enters  into  fellowship  not 
with  those  who  boast  of  their  righteousness  but  with  outcast 
publicans  and  sinners;  and  even  admits  one  of  them  to  be  a  sharer 
of  His  ministry  of  preaching  the  Kingdom.  Joy  and  gladness  is  the 
abiding  keynote  of  the  new  Gospel,  controlling  and  spiritualizing 
fasting  as  a  free  expression  of  piety.  The  Old  Testament  and  its 
sabbath  law  is  to  be  interpreted  not  by  the  casuistry  of  the  Schools, 
but  by  sympathy  with  the  merciful  intentions  and  gracious  mind 
of  the  divine  Lawgiver. 

The  basis  of  these  antipharisaic  revelations  of  the  true  nature  of 
messianic  salvation  is  as  before  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  the  authori- 
tative self-witness  of  Jesus.  He  claims  to  be  the  Son  of  Man  with 
the  divine  prerogative  to  forgive  sins  on  earth;  to  be  the  Lord  of  the 
Sabbath;  to  be  the  Bridegroom  instituting  a  festal  new  Hfe  with 
new  forms  of  devotion  and  with  a  new  spirit  of  freedom.  Along 
with  this  self-attestation  in  Ufe  and  word,  is  the  Father's  witness 
in  the  healing  of  the  paralytic  at  the  word  of  the  Son  who  pro- 
nounced his  forgiveness.    If  those  commentators  *  are  right  who 

detached  form';  the  second  and  third  are  merely  connected  topically,  and 
*it  is  impossible  to  be  sure  .  .  .  that  both  debates  or  either  occurred  at 
so  early  a  period';  the  fourth  and  fifth  'are  set  in  very  vague  connections  of 
time;  and  the  allusion  to  the  Pharisees  and  Herodians  is  again  proleptic'  He 
adds,  however:  *  but  the  fact  that  Jesus  had  ah-eady  raised  the  suspicions  of 
the  authorities  explains  the  inquisitorial  visits  of  the  Jerusalem  scribes  in 
3,  22  and  7,  1.' 

« E.  g.j  Plummer,  St.  Luke,  on  9,  34;  Zahn,  Evg.  d.  MaUhdtts,  on  9, 15,  p.  376. 
In  spite  of  the  veiled  wording  of  the  thought,  Jesus  reckons  on  the  under- 


34    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

find  in  Mk.  2,  19,  an  allusion  to  the  Baptist's  reference  to  Christ 
as  the  bridegroom,  (John  3,  29),  the  Baptist's  disciples  are  here 
reminded  of  their  Master's  witness  to  Jesus.  And  the  Old  Testa- 
ment too  bears  its  witness  that  in  His  fellowship  with  sinners  and 
in  His  sabbath  ideals.  He  is  revealing  the  will  and  mind  of  God. 
If  the  Pharisees  had  'the  word  of  God  abiding  in  then,'  (John  5, 
38);  if  they  had  the  antecedent  witness  of  the  Spirit,  'the  love  of 
God  in  themselves,'  they  could  have  recognized  not  only  the  pre- 
ceding forms  of  witness  but  also  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
changed  hfe  and  devoted  loyalty  of  the  sinners  who  responded  to 
Christ's  call.  But  in  the  absence  of  that  preparatory  witness  of  the 
Spirit,  the  result  of  this  initial  Galilean  conflict  is  that  they  adjudge 
Him  as  in  Jerusalem,  (John  5,  18)  a  blasphemer  and  destroyer 
of  the  Sabbath;  and  conferred  with  the  Herodians  on  the  means 
of  destroying  Him. 

Luke  by  reversing  the  order  of  Mk.  3,  7  to  12  and  3,  13  to  19, 
places  the  choice  of  the  Twelve  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
immediately  after  the  five  conflicts;  and  most  probably  with  the 
aim  of  showing  that  the  Sermon  was  the  direct  issue  of  the  con- 
flicts. The  First  EvangeUst,  who  first  mentions  the  choice  of  the 
Twelve  as  preliminary  to  their  instruction  for  the  Mission  in 
Chap.  10,  reports  the  Sermon  with  extended  reference  to  pharisaic 
opposition;  although  he  has  not  yet  brought  them  on  the  scene. 
In  the  Beatitudes  the  true  members  of  the  Kingdom  and  its  real 
blessings  are  presented  in  ahnost  direct  contrast  to  the  pharisaic 
assumptions  repudiated  in  the  first  Marcan  controversy  section. 
The  Sermon  next  meets  the  evident  pharisaic  charge  that  the 
religious  teaching  and  practices  in  that  Marcan  section  are  a 
destruction  of  the  Law  and  Prophets;  and  it  proceeds  to  reveal  the 
true  righteousness  of  the  divine  kingdom  in  opposition  to  the 
righteousness  of  the  scribes  as  seen  in  their  interpretation  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  to  the  righteousness  of  the  Pharisees  as  ex- 
pressed in  their  prayer,  fasting  and  almsgiving.  Again  as  in  the 
Marcan  controversy  and  in  the  Johannine  discourses.  He  bases  His 

standing  of  it  by  the  disciples  of  John.  A  satisfactory  historical  explanation 
of  this  assumption  and  of  all  its  presuppositions  lies  alone  in  the  fact  that 
these  disciples  of  John  or  their  associates,  had  once  heard  from  the  mouth  of 
their  teacher  the  metaphor,  (J.  3,  29)  in  reference  to  Jesus  and  the  community 
gathering  itself  around  him:  he  that  hath  the  bride  is  the  bridegroom. 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  35 

teaching  on  His  personal  authority  as  revealing  absolutely  with  His 
*  I  say  unto  you, '  the  Father's  will  in  the  Law  and  Prophets;  and  as 
professing  that  the  final  judgment  will  depend  upon  His  decision. 

2.  The  next  controversy  in  the  Marcan  and  Matthgean  order  is 
concerning  the  charge  that  Christ  is  in  league  with  BeelzebuL 
It  is  reported  in  Mk.  3,  22fif.,  Mtw.  12,  22  ff.,  and  Luke  11, 14  ff. 
Mark  thus  places  it  directly  after  the  five  initial  conflicts.  Mat- 
thew too  introduces  it  after  the  two  sabbath  conflicts,  which  are 
followed  by  Christ's  withdrawal  from  controversy  (12, 15) ;  thereby 
fulfilling  the  ideal  of  the  Old  Testament  Servant,  (12,  19.  cp.  II 
Tim.  2,  24).  But  when  His  exorcisms  have  raised  popular  en- 
thusiasm to  a  danger  point,  (12,  22  f.),  controversy  is  again  forced 
upon  him  by  his  enemies'  attack  on  the  vaUdity  of  these  miracles 
as  witness  to  his  claims.  They  are  ascribed  by  the  Pharisees  to 
demonic  influence.  Luke,  however,  places  this  conflict  in  the  latter 
part  of  His  ministry  as  part  of  the  controversy  section,  11,  14  ff. 

In  favor  of  the  chronological  arrangement  of  the  first  two 
EvangeUsts  is  the  fact  that  it  would  be  the  natural  order  of  attack. 
It  is  indeed  the  actual  order  of  these  two  controversies  even  in 
Luke.  It  would  also  naturally  be  made  in  the  earlier  period  of  the 
GaUlean  popular  success  and  excitement,  rather  than  in  the  final 
journeyings  towards  Jerusalem,  as  in  Luke.  Further,  Synoptic 
criticism  has  enabled  us  to  recognize  that  Luke's  arrangement  in 
11,  14  ff.,  is  clearly  topical;  as  will  appear  from  a  brief  summary 
concerning  the  Synoptic  sources  of  the  Beelzebul  sections.^ 

All  three  Evangelists  have  here  used  Q :  Mtw.  using  Mk.  also,  and 
incorporating  in  addition  related  Sayings;  Luke  too  combining 
with  Mk.  his  recension  of  Q,  together  with  some  material  from 
his  special  source,  L.  This  last  source  was  according  to  B.  Weiss, 
parallel  to  Q  in  Lk.  11,  37  ff.,  and  was  here  used  instead  of  Q. 
Following  the  main  features  of  Weiss'  reconstruction  of  this  sec- 
tion,^ Q  included  a  series  of  controversial  discourses,  Q.  Syn.  Ueb.j 
p.  88,  without  definite  chronological  indication.    Its  topical  order 

'  The  detailed  criticism  of  the  passage  and  a  discussion  of  recent  representa- 
tive critical  views  is  given  by  Prof.  B.  S.  Easton,  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical 
LUerature,  1913,  pp.  57  to  73:  The  Beelzebul  Sections. 

'  The  Greek  text,  pp.  34  to  47  of  Die  Quellen  der  Synoptischen  Ueberlie- 
ferung,  in  T.  and  U.  Bd.  32,  3.  1908,  with  discussion  m  Die  Quellen  des  Lur 
kaaevangeliums,  pp.  75  f.;  115  ff.;  289  f. 


36  APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

has  been  best  reproduced  by  Luke:  the  Beelzebul  section,  the 
demand  for  a  sign,  which  was  followed  in  Q  by  the  Woes  on  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees.  Since  Q  in  the  common  opinion  contained 
no  account  of  the  Jerusalem  ministry,  this  final  denunciation  is 
joined  for  topical  reasons  to  the  two  conflicts  just  mentioned;  and 
this  order  is  retained  in  Lk.  11,  39,  although  Mk.  and  Mtw. 
rightly  place  the  Woes  at  the  conclusion  of  the  ministry  in  Jerusa- 
lem; and  Luke  himself  at  the  same  point,  (20,  45),  repeats  from 
Mk.  his  earlier  verse,  11,  43.  This  absence  of  chronological 
interest  in  the  Lucan  section  containing  the  three  controversies, 
justifies  us,  therefore,  in  the  absence  of  any  opposing  reason,  in 
accepting  Mk.'s  assignment  of  the  Beelzebul  controversy  to  the 
middle  period  of  the  Galilean  ministry.  We  may  also  accept  the 
statement,  (Mk.  3,  22),  that  the  authors  of  this  charge  were  scribes 
from  Jerusalem;  and  also  that  they  were  Pharisees,  (Mtw.  12,  24). 
Weiss  on  the  contrary  urges  that  Lk.  11, 14,  refers  the  charge  to  the 
populace;  and  that  Luke  here  represents  Q's  view.^  Apart,  how- 
ever, from  the  consideration  that  a  popular  calumny  might  easily 
have  been  initiated  by  the  religious  leaders,  the  fact  that  Lk.  11, 

37  ff .,  in  which  Pharisees  are  denounced  by  name  and  to  their  faces, 
is  a  section  topically  related  in  Lk.  and  Q  to  the  two  preceding 
conflicts,  indicates  that  the  same  pharisaic  opponents  are  assumed 
in  the  whole  Q  controversy. ^°. 

In  the  threefold  account,  Christ's  reply  appears  to  be  the  ex- 
pression of  profoundest  amazement  at  the  malignity  of  such  a 
charge.  The  solemnity  of  His  treatment  of  it  is  not  surpassed  in 
any  other  conflict  in  the  Gospels;  and  is  due  not  only  to  its  danger- 
ous effect  in  distorting  the  witness  of  His  miracles  into  confutation 
of  His  claims,  but  also  to  its  disclosure  of  the  blindness  of  the 
hearts,  minds  and  consciences  of  those  who  made  it."  Beelzebul,  to 

•  Q.  d.  Lvkasevangeliums,  pp.  103,  115  n.;  Q.  Syn.  Ueb.,  p.  80. 

"Zahn,  Das  Ev.  d.  Lukas,  p.  461,  n.  41,  notes  that  in  Luke  11,  19,  the  ex- 
pression 'your  sons'  used  in  designation  of  the  adherents  of  the  circle  ad- 
dressed, points  primarily  to  a  party  and  profession.  It  would  thus  refer  as  in 
Mtw.  12,  24,  to  the  party  of  the  Pharisees. 

"  Gould,  St.  Mark,  p.  62:  The  charge  "is  not  merely  an  attempt  to  explain 
these  miracles,  so  as  to  do  away  with  the  effect  of  them,  but  a  distinct  charge 
on  the  strength  of  them.  "  It  involved,"  p.  60,  "a  complete  upsetting  of  all 
moral  values,  and  a  stupendous  and  well-nigh  irrecoverable  moral  blindness 
in  themselves." 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  37 

whom  they  ascribed  his  power,  is  probably  to  be  understood  as 
meaning  '  Lord  of  the  Dwelling, '  considered  as  the  Jewish  substi- 
tute for  *  Lord  of  Heaven  ' :  the  name  of  the  god  of  the  hated  foreign 
religion,  whom  they  regarded  as  a  demon. ^^  Yet  none  but  'the 
bUnd,'  Christ's  subsequent  constant  characterization  of  the 
Pharisees  and  their  allies,  could  fail  to  see  in  His  miracles  of  benefi- 
cence and  of  release  from  the  power  of  evil,  a  self-evident  contra- 
diction to  alliance  with  that  evil.  It  was  unthinkable  that  Satan 
would  permit  willingly  such  destruction  of  his  power  and  kingdom. 
Even  Jewish  exorcists  who  unite  with  material  means  the  invoca- 
tion of  demonic  powers,  ^^  will  themselves  condemn  the  Pharisees 
for  imputing  such  influence  to  Jesus,  whose  exorcisms  by  His  own 
authoritative  word,  (Mtw.  8,  16)  reveal  that  the  spirit  operating 
through  Him  is  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  the  divine  testimony  to  Him 
in  these  works,  which  is  self-evident  to  all  who  are  not  morally 
bUnd,  there  is  also  a  witness  to  His  words  annoimcing  the  coming 
of  the  Kingdom.  These  victories  over  the  kingdom  of  evil  testify 
that  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  come  upon  them  in  the  person  and 
work  of  One  who  approves  Himself  to  be  Satan's  conqueror  and  the 
deUverer  of  all  who  are  in  bondage  to  Him.  Thus  the  more  definite 
Pharisaic  attack  has  led  to  a  more  definite  assertion  of  His  claims 
and  of  their  support  in  the  witness  of  His  own  life  of  redeeming 
spiritual  power;  in  the  witness  of  the  Father  in  His  reveahng  word 
and  work;  and  in  the  witness  of  the  personal  experience  of  those 
who  have  entered  into  the  blessings  of  the  Kingdom  He  has  brought. 
Passing  from  apologia  to  polemic,  (Mtw.  12,  30  ff.),  he  warns  them 
that  their  refusal  to  recognize  this  witness  makes  them  the  allies  of 
the  eneniy  He  has  conquered,  and  blasphemers  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of 

"  This  conclusion  of  several  older  scholars  is  supported  by  W.  E.  M.  Aitken 
in  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  1912,  pp.  34-54.  Bertholet,  R.  G.  u.  G.,  II, 
1223,  holds  that  while  scrupulously  pious  Jews  might  hear  in  the  word  Beel- 
zebul,  'the  god  of  filth,'  yet  it  designates  in  reality  Hhe  Lord  of  the  (heavenly) 
dwelling,'  i.  e.,  the  Sun  God.  If  the  reading  Beelzebub  is  adopted,  it  too  as 
being  the  name  of  the  Philistine  'god  of  flies,'  is  probably  the  name  of  a  Sun 
God.  Cheyne  in  Ency.  Bihlica  considers  that  to  Jews  in  the  New  Testament 
age,  the  name  meant  'Lord  of  the  nether  world.'  Nestle  in  D.  C.  G.  finds  all 
the  proposed  derivations  unsatisfactory.  Other  derivations  are  discussed  in 
the  above  articles  and  in  the  commentaries. 

"  J.  A.  Montgomery,  Aramaic  Incantation  Texts,  III,  §§  9-13,  with  full  refer- 
ences to  the  relevant  literature. 


38    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

God  revealing  Himself  in  the  life,  words  and  works  of  the  Son  of 
Man.  Their  rejection  of  this  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  Jesus  and 
their  blasphemous  accusation  is  due  to  the  absence  of  God's  spirit 
of  purity  and  goodness  in  their  own  inner  Uves.  It  is  the  fruit  of  a 
root  of  corruption,  the  expression  of  an  evil  heart;  the  revelation  of 
their  hidden  treasure  of  wickedness. 

3.  In  Q,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  sequence  common  to  Mtw.  12 
and  Lk.  11,  the  Beelzebul  strife  was  followed  by  the  demand  for  a 
Sign.  The  significance  of  this  conflict  is  affected  by  decisions  con- 
cerning the  debated  questions  of  Synoptic  criticism,  exegesis  and 
the  eschatological  element  in  the  Gospels  which  converge  in  this 
section.  The  question  of  the  order  of  this  demand  in  the  series  of 
controversies  is  raised  by  the  fact  that  in  Mk.  (8, 11)  it  is  preceded 
by  demand  for  obedience  to  the  Oral  Law,  (7,  1).  In  Mtw.  on  the 
contrary  the  controversy  concerning  the  sign,  (12,  28),  precedes 
the  section  on  the  Oral  Law  (15,  1);  but  the  demand  for  a  Sign 
appears  again  at  16, 1,  as  a  doublet  from  Mk.  8, 11.^^  Lk.  omits  the 
portion  of  Mk.  which  contains  these  two  sections;  but  presents 
the  discourse  concerning  the  Oral  Law,  (11,  37)  as  following  the 
section  on  the  Sign  (11,  29).  This  too,  as  stated  above,  is  the  order 
of  Q  which  reappears  in  Mtw.'s  framework:  in  chapter  12,  the  de- 
mand for  a  sign;  and  in  chapter  23,  the  pharisaic  emphasis  on  the 
Oral  Tradition.  This  would  seem  to  be  the  logical  and  historical 
sequence  of  the  two  conflicts.  The  claims  involved  in  Christ's 
repulse  of  the  Beelzebul  charge  would  lead  more  naturally  to  a 
challenge  for  an  indubitable  sign  to  accredit  them,  than  to  a  de- 
mand for  obedience  to  the  tradition  of  the  fathers.  ^^ 

But  while  adopting  this  sequence  of  the  two  conflicts  from  Q 
instead  of  Mk.,  we  may  on  the  other  hand  conclude  from  internal 
indications  in  the  Gospels  that  Mk.'s  assignment  of  the  demand 
for  a  Sign  to  the  period  after  the  Galilean  ministry,  (8,  11)  is  to  be 
preferred  to  Mtw.'s  earlier  assignment  of  the  discourse  (12,  38) 
within  the  Galilean  ministry  and  to  Luke's  report  of  it  in  the  later 
Perean  Ministry,  (11,  29).  These  latter  assignments  obviously 
depend  only  on  the  topical  arrangement  of  Q.  In  favor  of  the 
Marcan  chronological  setting  of  the  section  is  the  fact  that  Christ's 

"J.  C.  Hawkins,  HorcR  Synopticce,  pp.  78.  71. 

"  The  Marcan  sequence  of  the  two  controversies  will  be  considered  further 
on  p.  46  f. 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  39 

reference  to  the  people  as  a  wicked  and  adulterous  generation 
which  has  rejected  the  preaching  of  one  greater  than  Jonah  and 
the  wisdom  of  one  greater  than  Solomon,  presupposes  a  stage  of 
ministry  not  amid  the  popular  enthusiasm  indicated  in  the  context 
of  Mtw.  12,  cp.  vs.  23,  but  after  the  Gospel  had  already  been  re- 
jected, as  at  the  close  of  the  Galilean  period.  Such  a  rejection  is 
definitely  stated  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  (Jn.  6,  66)  to  have  taken 
place  after  the  feeding  of  the  5,000;  and  it  would  be  the  natural 
occasion  for  Christ's  withdrawal  from  Galilee  stated  in  Mk.  7,  24, 
and  the  parallel  Mtw.  15,  21. 

This  reference  to  Jn.  6  recalls  that  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  the 
Galilean  ministry  itself  closes  in  connection  with  a  popular  de- 
mand for  a  sign  Uke  the  manna  from  Heaven.  This  demand, 
however,  although  related  to  the  demand  for  a  Sign  in  the  Synop- 
tics is  not  a  variant  of  it.  The  two  reports  differ  as  to  the  scene, 
the  specific  demands,  the  repUes  to  them  and  the  results.  In 
John  the  demand  is  made  in  the  Synagogue;  in  Lk.,  (11,  29), 
when  crowds  were  gathering.  In  the  Synagogue  it  is  as  yet,  for 
manna  to  be  brought  down  by  Him  from  heaven;  while  later,  as 
will  appear,  it  is  specifically  for  a  sign  in  the  heaven  itself.  There 
is  no  refusal  of  the  manna  sign,  but  an  assurance  that  it  has  al- 
ready been  given  in  Himself,  the  true  Bread  from  Heaven;  while 
to  the  other  demand  there  is  only  the  warning  that  no  sign  shall 
be  given  but  the  sign  of  Jonah.  In  Capernaum  the  discourse  on 
the  sign  of  Himself  the  Bread  of  Life,  includes  the  offer  of  resur- 
rection and  eternal  Hfe;  in  contrast  to  the  denunciation  of  those 
who  ask  for  the  other  sign,  as  a  wicked  and  adulterous  generation 
which  will  be  condemned  in  the  judgment.  In  John  His  refusal 
of  an  additional  sign  causes  their  rejection  of  Him;  in  the  Synoptics 
their  rejection  of  Him  causes  His  refusal  of  any  sign  to  them.  But 
while  the  demands  in  John  and  Mark  are  not  variant  reports  of 
the  same  incident,  the  similarity  of  their  general  subject  points 
to  a  close  relationship;  and  this  is  probably  stated  correctly  in 
B.  Weiss'  view  that  the  challenge  in  Mark  is  the  outgrowth  of 
the  request  in  John.^®  According  to  his  construction  of  the  situa- 
tion, in  Mk.  (8,  11  ff.),  the  Pharisees  renew  the  earlier  demand  of 
the  populace,  (Jn.  6,  30  ff.),  as  a  subtle  temptation:  they  would 
recognize  Him,  if  He  will  grant  a  legitimating  sign  from  heaven, 
"  B.  Weiss,  Ufe  of  Christ,  III,  p.  10  f. 


40    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

which  they  know  He  has  already  refused  to  give;  and  the  antici- 
pated renewed  refusal  will  fatally  discredit  Him  with  the  crowds 
again  gathering  around  Him.  Mark  reports  Christ's  profound 
emotion;  His  groaning  in  His  spirit  at  the  subtle  leaven  of  their 
hypocrisy;  His  refusal  of  their  challenge;  and  His  retirement  from 
them.  Q  reports  His  discourse  to  the  surrounding  crowds,  who 
shared  in  the  desire  for  a  sign,  (Mtw.  12,  38;  Lk.  11,  29). 

But  of  more  importance  than  these  debated  critical  questions 
of  the  sequence,  chronology  and  relations  of  these  sections  in  the 
Synoptics  and  John,  is  the  determination  of  the  specific  character 
of  the  sign  demanded  in  the  Synoptics.  Evidently  it  is  not  a 
demand  for  a  more  striking  miracle  of  the  ordinary  class.  For 
although  Christ  asserts  in  reply  to  it  that  no  sign  will  be  given, 
(Lk.  11,  29),  He  proceeds  in  the  following  chapters  to  perform  the 
usual  miracles,  which  indeed  are  not  called  signs  in  the  Synoptics. 
All  the  available  data  indicate  that  this  new  demand  for  a  sign 
of  a  special  character  would  come  from  a  special  class  with  dis- 
tinct messianic  expectations:  the  pharisaic  apocalyptists  and 
their  sympathizers.  The  differing  attitudes  to  Christ's  miracles, 
(cp.  Jn.  7,  31),  and  this  demand  for  a  specific  sign  would  thus 
be  related  to  the  distinct  types  of  contemporary  messianic  ex- 
pectations. Volz  ^^  distinguishes  two  current  conceptions  of  the 
manifestation  of  the  Messiah.  In  the  popular  view.  He  was  to 
manifest  Himself  by  miracles.  Volz  finds  this  view  expressed  in 
the  Synoptics,  in  Josephus'  account,  (p.  191),  of  Theudas,  of  the 
Egyptian  under  Felix  and  of  the  sorcerer  under  Festus,  who  prom- 
ised to  work  miracles  and  who  probably  wished  to  be  viewed  as 
Messiah;  and  also  in  the  reference  to  the  doctrine  of  the  rabbis, 
(Justin,  Trypho,  110)  that  Messiah  would  be  recognized  when  'He 
shall  become  manifest  and  glorious.'  In  contrast,  however,  to 
this  popular  view,  the  Messiah  in  Jewish  Apocalyptic  is  to  reveal 
Himself  as  such  by  the  manner  of  his  coming:  He  comes  from 
heaven  in  the  clouds;  or  from  the  sun;  or  as  the  rising  of  a  star; 
or  as  a  lightning  flash;  or  out  of  the  sea.^^ 

"  P.  Volz,  JMUche  Eaehatologie  van  Daniel  bis  Akiba,  p.  220. 

"Volz  refers  to  Danl.  7,  13;  4  Ezra  12,  3;  Orac.  8yb.  3,  652;  Tests.  Juda  24, 
Levi  18;  Apoc.  Baruch  53.  So  B.  Weiss  (Life  of  Christ,  III,  p.  11) :  to  command 
the  sun  to  stand  still  or  to  cease  shining;  or  to  cause  some  token  to  be  seen  in 
the  sky.    Gould  (St.  Mark,  p.  144):  the  kind  of  signs  we  find  in  the  eschato- 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  41 

From  a  special  group  of  Pharisees  holding  such  a  view,  we 
conceive  the  demand,  (Mk.  8,  11),  to  have  come.^*  The  sign 
they  had  in  mind  was  some  distinct  phenomenon  in  the  sky  as 
a  prelude  to  the  messianic  age.  Such  a  demand  would  evidently 
have  been  first  occasioned  by  some  indication  or  act  or  implied 
claim  on  Jesus'  part  that  He  was  the  Christ.  Whatever  impres- 
sion His  earUer  preaching  of  the  Kingdom  or  His  references  to 
Himself  as  the  Son  of  Man  may  have  made  upon  them,  He  could 
not  possibly  be  the  Messiah  of  their  apocalyptic  expectations. 
Even  among  the  enthusiastic  multitudes  in  the  Galilean  ministry. 
His  usual  miracles  had  led  only  to  the  belief  that  He  was  a  prophet, 
(Mk.  8,  28;  cp.  Jno.  9,  17;  Mtw.  21,  11).  But  in  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel the  miracle  of  feeding  the  five  thousand  at  length  definitely 
raises  the  question  whether  He  be  not  the  prophet  that  should 
come  into  the  world,  (Volz,  p.  190).  He  then  refuses  to  be  the 
Messianic  King,  of  the  popular  expectation.  Yet  the  next  day 
when  He  claims  their  faith  in  Himself  as  sent  from  God,  (Jno.  6, 
29),  He  is  confronted  with  a  special  form  of  messianism:  that  the 
Messiah  would  be  a  prophet  like  unto  Moses,  (Volz,  p.  191),  and 
is  challenged  to  perform  miracles  similar  to  those  of  the  Mosaic 
Age.  In  response  to  this  demand  for  an  authenticating  sign  of 
Messiahship  of  this  Moses-type,  He  does  not  deny  that  He  makes 
any  such  claim,  but  asserts  that  it  is  already  given  in  Himself 
as  the  true  bread  from  heaven.  Such  a  claim,  especially  in  com- 
bination with  mysterious  references  to  Himself  as  the  Son  of 
Man  coming  down  from  heaven  and  ascending  thither,  gives  the 
natural  occasion  for  Pharisaic  apocalyptists  and  their  adherents 
to  make  their  challenge  recorded  in  Mark  immediately  after 
His  account  of  the  feeding  of  the  four  thousand,  of  a  sign  from 
heaven. 

logical  discourses,  ch.  13,  this  being  what  they  were  led  to  expect  in  connection 
with  the  Messianic  period;  a  voice  from  heaven  or  anything  coming  from  above. 
Plummer  (St  Luke,  p.  307) :  a  voice  from  heaven,  a  pillar  of  fire;  after  Neander, 
(Life  of  Christ,  §  92),  a  visible,  celestial  phenomenon  unequivocally  authenti- 
cating Him  as  a  messenger  of  God. 

"Lagrange,  Le  Messianisme  chez  les  Juifs,  p.  133,  holds  that  while  the 
majority  of  apocal3rptists  belonged  to  the  Pharisees,  yet  they  did  not 
present  themselves  in  that  character  and  had  not  the  authority  which 
knowledge  of  the  Law  conferred  upon  the  Scribes.  Cp.  Box,  Ezra  Apocalypse, 
p.  284. 


42    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

In  the  Mtw.  parallel,  (16,  1  ff.)  the  character  of  the  sign  de- 
manded is  interpreted  by  the  early  gloss  in  vs.  2  b  and  3,  in 
which  the  ironical  contrast  expresses  Christ's  rebuke  of  their  as- 
sumption that  discernment  of  the  phenomena  of  the  skies  can 
lead  to  discernment  of  the  'signs  of  the  times':  cry/Lie ta  rCov  Kaipihv. 
Hort,  {N.  T.  Appdx.,  p.  13)  has  stated  the  results  of  the  text- 
criticism  of  the  passage:  the  words  are  *no  part  of  the  text  of 
Mtw.  They  can  hardly  have  been  an  altered  repetition  of  Lk.  12, 
54  f.;  but  were  apparently  derived  from  an  extraneous  source, 
written  or  oral,  and  inserted  in  the  Western  text  at  a  very  early 
time.'  Zahn,  Mts.  Ev.,  p.  528,  suggests  that  this  source  may 
possibly  have  been  in  Papias'  report  of  the  sayings  of  Christ's 
disciples;  and  considers  the  gloss  to  be  in  itself  both  per- 
tinent and  credible  and  not  inappropriately  inserted  in  this 
context. 

In  Lk.  17,  20  f .,  however,  the  allusion  to  a  pharisaic  expectation 
of  an  apocalyptic  sign  of  the  coming  of  the  messianic  kingdom, 
is  more  definite.  Christ  denies  that  it  comes  with  'observation,' 
so  that  the  observers  can  point  it  out:  lo,  here!  or  there.  On  the 
contrary  the  Kingdom  comes  or  is  present  not  as  a  result  of  watch- 
ing for  a  sign  from  heaven:  whether  ivrds  vfxcov  Ictiv  be  viewed 
as  meaning  'is'  or  'shall  be'  among  or  within  you.  That 
TraparriprjaLs  is  here  used  of  observation  of  the  skies,  is  supported  by 
the  citations  in  all  the  Greek  Lexicons  of  passages  where  it  and 
its  cognates  are  used  of  auguries  from  the  phenomena  of  the  skies 
and  of  astronomical  and  astrological  observations.  It  is  even 
possible  at  least  that  there  may  be  an  allusion  to  contemporary 
apocalyptic  expectation  of  such  a  sign  from  the  skies  in  Christ's 
second  temptation:  to  cast  Himself  down  from  the  height  of  the 
pinnacle  of  the  temple  with  the  accompaniment  and  support  of 
angels,  is  there  demanded  as  proof  of  His  divine  Sonship.  Streeter, 
{Foundations,  p.  101)  has  suggested  that  the  significance  of  this 
temptation  is:  "If  the  Kingdom  is  not  to  be  estabUshed  by  the 
sword,  it  can  only  be  by  an  act  of  God  such  as  the  apocalyptists 
picture."  McNeile  on  the  contrary,  (Mtw.,  p.  40)  regards  the 
suggestion  of  Streeter  to  be  'far-fetched.'  But  if  Christ  had  thus 
at  the  outset  of  His  ministry  faced  this  messianic  expectation  of 
the  apocalyptists  and  their  sympathizers.  He  did  not  merely  refuse 
to  accede  to  it  whenever  it  was  pressed  upon  Him ;  but  as  in  the 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  43 

case  of  other  messianic  conceptions,  He  transformed  it.^  It  was 
based  on  the  conviction  that  Messiah  would  come  from  the  tran- 
scendental sphere,  (Volz,  p.  210  f .) ;  and  after  His  refusals  to  realize 
the  current  expectation  as  to  the  method  of  His  manifestation 
from  that  sphere,  and  after  His  gradual  disclosures  of  His  own 
method,  He  used  this  conception  and  its  symbolism  as  He  had 
transformed  it,  to  express  in  His  eschatological  teachings  the  final 
revelation  of  Himself  as  glorified  Son  of  Man.  The  discourse  on 
the  Last  Things,  at  the  close  of  His  ministry,  (Mk.  13  and  pUs.), 
is  in  response  to  the  inquiry  of  the  four  Apostles  closest  to  him : 
'when  shall  this  be  and  what  the  sign  of  thy  Parousia  and  of  the 
end  of  the  world?',  (Mtw.  24,  3).  His  direct  answer  to  them, 
(vs.  30),  is  that  after  the  powers  of  heaven  are  shaken,  shall  be 
seen  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven ;  ^^  and  as  on  the  day 
of  Caesarea,  (Mk.  8,  38  f.),  which  in  Mark  follows  closely  on  the 
demand  for  a  sign,  this  sign  of  Mtw.  24,  30,  is  his  coming  with 
power  and  glory  for  the  gathering  of  his  elect  and  for  Messianic 
Judgment. 

Our  Lord's  refusal  to  meet  the  Pharisaic  challenge  for  a  sign 
from  heaven,  is  at  this  point  based  on  their  rejection  of  all 
the  previous  witness  of  His  life  and  ministry.  That  witness 
had  met  with  no  response  of  faith.  Their  demand  was  in 
reaUty  for  a  credential  which  would,  as  in  the  second  tempta- 
tion, relieve  them  of  the  exercise  of  the  personal  devotion  of 
mind,  heart,  will  and  conscience  that  is  involved  in  every  act  of 
faith.  No  sign  can  be  given  to  such  a  generation  but  the  sign  of 
Jonah. 

The  earliest  comment  on  this  statement,  outside  of  the  Gospels, 

*Cp.  Streeter,  op.  cU.,  (p.  101):  "His  independent  interpretation  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  His  trenchant  criticism  of  the  traditions  of  the  scribes, 
forbid  to  Him  a  slavish  Hteralism  in  the  acceptance  of  contemporary  apoc- 
alyptic symbolism." 

^*  McNeile,  (Mtw.  p.  352),  in  a  brief  summary  of  interpretations,  thinks 
this  sign  is  possibly  the  'great  glory'  of  vs.  30;  or  less  probably  it  may  be  the 
sign  consisting  of  the  Son  of  Man.  B.  Weiss  and  Wellhausen  maintain  this 
latter  view;  and  W.  C.  Allen  regards  it  as  the  more  probable.  Zahn,  however, 
regards  the  sign  as  a  phenomenon  in  the  heavens  distinct  from,  yet  contem- 
poraneous with  the  Son  of  Man's  appearance.  For  the  patristic  view  that 
the  sign  is  the  Cross,  cp.  Bousset,  Apoc.  220  f.,  and  Antichrist  Legend,  pp. 
232-236. 


44    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

is  that  of  Justin  Martyr  in  his  dialogue  with  Trypho,  c.  107: 
"Since  he  spoke  this  obscurely,  it  was  to  be  understood  by  the 
audience  that  after  His  crucifixion  He  should  rise  again  on  the 
third  day."  But  it  has  not  been  so  understood  since  Paulus' 
time,  (1801),  by  a  great  number  of  critics  and  ex^etes  who  under- 
stand the  sign  of  Jonah  to  be  his  preaching.  This  interpretation 
is  based  first  on  the  critical  decision  that  Mtw.  12,  40,  which  states 
that  like  Jonah,  Christ  will  be  in  the  heart  of  the  earth  three  days 
and  three  nights,  was  not  in  his  source  Q;  or  with  Loisy,  (1,997  f.), 
was  interpolated  in  his  recension  of  Q;  in  either  case  is  not  a  report 
of  the  words  of  Christ.  Further  it  is  claimed  that  though  it  is 
the  EvangeUst's  explanation,  it  is  nevertheless  a  mistaken  inter- 
pretation of  our  Lord's  meaning. 

With  the  critical  decision  numbers  of  conservative  critics  are 
disposed  to  agree,  in  view  of  the  absence  of  the  verse  in  the  Lukan 
parallel.  Among  these  are  Salmon,  (Human  Element  in  the  Gos- 
pels, p.  217;  cp.,  however,  p.  218),  Zahn,  McNeile  and  Allen  who 
marks  it  as  an  editorial  passage,  though  with  a  question  mark. 
B.  Weiss  omits  it  in  his  printed  reconstruction  of  Q,  (p.  37) ;  yet 
in  a  note  remarks  that  the  inappropriate  reference  to  'three  days 
and  three  nights'  might  be  in  favor  of  the  view  that  vs.  40  stood 
in  Q.  It  seems,  however,  more  probable  to  suppose  that  the  verse 
was  added  to  Q  by  the  Evangelist,  by  direct  quotation  from  Jonah, 
as  illustrating  our  Lord's  meaning. 

The  remaining  question,  whether  he  was  justified  in  his  inter- 
pretation of  the  enigmatic  saying  of  vs.  39,  has  to  be  determined 
by  the  exegesis  of  the  Lukan  parallel,  (11,  30);  as  Jonah  was  a 
sign  to  the  Ninevites,  so  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  to  this  genera- 
tion. Is  the  basis  of  this  comparison  the  preaching  of  Jonah  and 
Jesus;  or  the  persons  of  the  two  preachers?  Wellhausen,  (Ev. 
Matth.,  p.  64),  while  stating  that  Lk.  11,  30,  viewed  as  a  contrast 
between  the  two  instances  of  preaching  would  make  an  appro- 
priate transition  from  Mtw.  12,  39  to  12,  41,  cannot,  however, 
comprehend  how  such  an  antithesis  can  be  spoken  of  as  a  sign. 
And  inasmuch  as  Luke  does  not  next  speak  of  the  men  of  Nineveh 
but  of  the  Queen  of  the  South,  who  had  no  connection  with  Jonah, 
he  decides,  as  B.  Weiss  also,  {OuelUn  d.  Luk,  p.  75  and  McNeile), 
that  both  in  Mtw.  and  Lk.  these  two  references  to  Jonah's  preach- 
ing and  Solomon's  wisdom  had  originally  nothing  to  do  with  the 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  46 

sign  of  Jonah;  in  which  case  Mtw.  12, 40,  deserves  preference  over 
Lk.  11,  30. 

Others,  asB.  Weiss  and  Zahn,  have  emphasized  that  in  Lk.  11, 
30,  we  have  not  a  contrast  and  antithesis  but  an  analogy  and  simi- 
larity which  cannot  be  based  on  the  respective  preachings.  For 
this  in  the  one  case  is  addressed  to  heathen  with  success;  and  in 
the  other  case  to  Jews  with  its  rejection.  Such  a  contrast  could 
be  made  better  with  many  other  Old  Testament  prophets  than 
with  Jonah.  Moreover  in  Lk.  11,  30,  there  is  neither  comparison 
nor  contrast  between  Jonah's  preaching  in  the  past  and  Christ's 
preaching  in  the  present;  but  a  reference  to  the  sign  of  Jonah 
in  the  past  and  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  future.  Neither 
was  Jonah's  preaching  a  sign  of  anything  to  Nineveh,  nor  def- 
initely could  His  preaching  be  in  any  way  related  to  a  sign  of  mes- 
siahship:  for  which  object  the  sign  of  Jonah  is  introduced  by 
Christ.  The  succeeding  reference  to  the  preaching  at  Nineveh  is 
not,  as  Wellhausen  and  B.  Weiss  have  recognized,  related  to  the 
saying  concerning  the  sign  of  Jonah,  but  is  a  distinct  reference  to 
Christ's  declaration  concerning  the  Jews  as  a  wicked  and  adulterous 
generation. 

Rejecting  therefore  with  the  recent  commentators,  Allen,  Mc- 
Neile,  B.  Weiss,  Wellhausen  and  Zahn,  the  view  that  Lk.  11,  30, 
refers  to  the  preaching  of  Jonah,  we  find  the  basis  of  the  compari- 
son of  the  sign  in  the  persons  and  history  of  the  prophet  and 
Christ;  and  that  the  First  Evangelist's  later  gloss  rightly  inter- 
prets Christ's  enigmatic  utterance  as  referring  to  the  story  of  the 
prophet's  deliverance  from  death,  preparatory  to  a  ministry  in 
a  restored  life.^^  The  only  sign  that  will  be  given  to  the  Jewish 
nation  rejecting  the  sign  of  Christ's  own  life  among  them,  will 
be  not  a  sign  from  heaven  above,  according  to  the  apocalyptists' 
demand,  but  from  below:  the  sign  of  His  resurrection  from  death, 
crowning  all  the  other  witness  already  given  to  them.  The  fact 
of  their  demand  for  a  sign  is  itself  evidence  that  they  had  already 

**  McNeile  (Mtw.,  p.  181)  agrees  that  in  Mtw.  we  have  a  gloss  interpreting 
the  sign  of  Jonah  as  referring  to  the  resurrection.  But  he  holds  that  in  the 
Lukan  parallel  the  reference  is  neither  to  preaching  nor  resurrection,  but  to 
Christ's  second  advent.  To  express  this  idea  he  is  compelled  to  paraphrase 
thus:  "The  Son  of  Man  will  come,  as  it  were  from  a  foreign  land,  with  a  mes- 
sage of  doom  to  this  generation  as  Jonah  to  the  Ninevites." 


46    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

rejected  the  signs  of  His  earthly  appearance  and  ministry.  "His 
life  was  full  of  signs;  nay  it  was  a  sign;  He  Himself  was  the  sign. 
Jesus  refuses  especially  to  give  a  sign  to  that  generation.  It  was 
an  age  full  of  signs;  it  was  the  period  of  the  Incarnation;  and  yet 
its  leaders  went  about  asking  for  signs,  and  refused  to  believe  the 
self-witness  of  the  Son  of  God"  (Gould,  Mark,  p.  145).  Hence 
His  groaning  in  spirit  (Mk.  8, 12) ;  His  warning  that  their  rejection 
of  Him  revealed  them  to  be  less  spiritually  receptive  than  the  men 
of  Nineveh  and  the  Queen  of  the  South;  that  their  failure  to  ad- 
vance from  their  initial  interest  in  the  preaching  of  the  Baptist 
and  of  Jesus,  has  now  led  to  a  worse  spiritual  state,  (Mtw.  12, 
41-45);  and  that  this  failure  and  their  rejection  of  Him  and  His 
testimony,  (Lk.  11,  33-36),  is  due  to  their  spiritual  blindness, 
filling  them  with  darkness. 

4.  Luke's  succeeding  section,  (11,  37  ff.)  represents  .as  the  next 
stage  of  opposition,  their  attack  upon  him  for  disregard  of  the 
Oral  Law,  and  his  open  denunciation  of  them.  The  discourse 
which  Luke  introduces  at  this  point,  (vs.  39  ff.),from  the  section 
of  Q  that  followed  the  preceding  controversy,  is  rightly  placed 
by  Mtw.  in  chapter  23,  and  is  referred  to  in  Mk.  12,  likewise  at 
the  close  of  the  ministry.  But  the  introductory  incident,  (vs.  37  f .) , 
is  without  doubt  properly  placed  sometime  after  the  close  of  the 
ministry  in  GaUlee.  We  have  in  Mk.  7,  1  ff .  an  unusually  detailed 
and  vivid  report  of  our  Lord's  open  breach  with  the  Pharisees  on 
this  issue.  Mark  indeed  places  this  conflict  before  the  demand 
for  a  sign;  and  as  Keim  states  it  is  not  possible  to  decide  with 
certainty  as  to  the  order  of  the  two  demands.  He  adopts  the 
order  we  are  here  following.  While  the  Pharisaic  criticism  could 
no  doubt  have  been  made  earlier  during  the  Galilean  ministry, 
yet  both  the  denunciation  of  them  and  its  tone  point  to  a  later 
period  and  to  a  definitive  breach.  It  has  also  been  noted,  e.  g.,  by 
Allen,  (S.  Mark,  p.  19),  that  Mark  introduces  it  with  no  indica- 
tion of  time  or  place;  and  his  interest  may  be  here  primarily  in 
the  subject  rather  than  in  its  position  in  the  historical  progress 
of  the  ministry.  It  would  seem  to  be  the  logical  stage  of  direct 
attack  after  the  earlier  complaints  in  the  five  Markan  conflicts, 
the  disparagements  of  his  exorcisms  and  the  challenge  for  a  sign 
from  heaven. 

The  concrete  charge,  (Mk.  7,  5),  of  disloyalty  to  the  tradition 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  47 

of  the  Elders,  because  of  His  neglect  of  the  oral  law  of  cleansing 
before  food,  is  met  by  the  equally  concrete  charge  of  Pharisaic 
disloyalty  to  the  Word  of  God,  betrayed  by  their  scribal  decision 
concerning  Korban:  such  a  dedication  of  gifts  as  prevents  obe- 
dience of  the  Old  Testament  commandment.  Against  this  accusa- 
tion of  His  transgression  of  a  merely  human  rule.  He  hurls  back 
the  charge  of  their  annulment  of  divine  law,  in  the  interest  of 
their  law  of  oral  tradition.  Hypocrites  are  they;  fulfilling  Isaiah's 
description  of  hypocrisy  and  dishonoring  God  by  pretext  of  a 
piety  stricter  than  the  Old  Testament  standard.  As  the  issue 
had  been  raised  on  cleansing  before  meals  to  avoid  ceremonial 
defilement.  He  announces  to  the  people  in  His  parable,  (Mk.  7, 
14  f.),  which  He  interprets  to  the  Twelve,  (vs.  17  f.,)  that  the 
inner  fount  of  purity  of  heart  is  the  ideal  aimed  at  in  the  Old 
Testament  law  concerning  defilement:  thereby  as  Mk.  comments, 
(vs.  19),  *' cleansing  all  food." 

This  in  Keim's  words,^^  "  was  a  worthy  conclusion  of  this  con- 
flict: opposed  to  ordinance,  the  Law;  to  cleansings,  the  heart; 
to  ceremony,  moral  character  and  the  love  of  man.  Every  path 
must  lead  him  to  the  same  goal.  Out  of  the  ridiculous  washing 
of  hands  to  the  glory  of  God,  must  develop  the  noble  warm  care 
for  humanity,  in  the  personality  of  one's  self  and  others:  a  trans- 
formed reUgion." 

Before  considering  His  final  denunciation  of  the  Pharisees  at 
the  close  of  His  ministry,  we  may  turn  to  the  intervening  con- 
flicts as  reported  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  After  the  GaUlean  con- 
flicts and  after  the  annunciation  of  the  passion  and  resurrection, 
we  have  in  John,  chapters  7  to  12,  a  record  of  controversies  in 
Jerusalem  at  the  feasts  of  Tabernacles  and  Dedication  and  near 
the  final  Passover.  The  reported  references  to  division  among 
the  people,  (7,  12.40;  8,  22;  10,  19;  12,  41),  and  even  among  the 
ruling  class,  (7,  50;  9,  16;  11,  45),  reveal  the  result  of  the  earlier 
and  of  the  renewed  conflicts.  While  some  consider  Him  *a  good 
man,'  or  'a  prophet,'  and  are  even  debating  whether  He  is  not 
the  Christ,  others  reflect  the  now  settled  attitude  of  the  Pharisaic 
leaders  after  their  Galilean  attacks  and  Christ's  open  denunciation 
of  them.    There  are,  however,  no  essentially  new  lines  of  apologia 

"  Ges.  Jesu  von  Nazara,  II,  p.  355. 


48    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

or  polemic.  The  Pharisees  do  not  initiate  controversy  with  Him. 
Their  oppositions  are  rather  of  the  nature  of  counter-attacks  and 
retorts  against  the  open  polemic  which  Christ  began  in  Galilee 
and  now  develops  in  the  Capital;  and  at  the  same  time  they  are 
repudiations  of  His  renewed  and  absolute  claims  of  union  with 
God,  of  mission  from  God  and  of  the  divine  witness  in  His  life 
and  lifework. 

Thus,  in  the  six  chapters  covering  the  closing  months  of  the 
ministry  are  found  reiterated  assertions  of  the  witness  of  Christ 
Himself:  ^^  that  He  has  come  down  from  above,  (8,  23) ;  from  God, 
(8, 42) ;  with  whom  He  is  one,  (10, 30) ;  by  whom  He  was  consecrated 
for  His  mission,  (10,  36);  who  speaks  and  works  through  Him, 
(8,  28) ;  that  He  is  the  sinless  Son,  (8, 46) ;  that  He  returns  to  God, 
and  if  any  will  keep  His  word,  (8,  51)  and  will  hear  His  voice  as 
the  Good  Shepherd,  (10,  27),  He  gives  them  eternal  life.  To  meet 
these  declarations  the  Jewish  leaders  oppose  to  the  witness  of  His 
life,  their  denunciations  of  Him  as  a  Samaritan,  as  possessed  by  a 
demon,  insane;  and  possibly  as  born  in  fornication,  (8,  41),  a 
sinner  and  Sabbath  breaker.  In  rejection  of  His  claim  to  have 
the  Father's  witness  in  His  words  and  teachings,  they  assert  that 
His  utterances  blaspheme  God  and  deceive  the  people.  His  mirac- 
ulous works  are  not  denied,  (10,  32  f.);  neither  the  earUer  works 
nor  the  two  recorded  in  John  in  this  period:  the  restoration  of 
the  blind  man  at  the  Dedication  and  the  raising  of  Lazarus.  But 
they  are  blind  to  the  witness  of  these  works,  (9,  39  f.),  as  forming 
with  His  words  the  revelation  of  the  Father,  (10,  37  f.).  Both  in 
John  7,  27,  and  in  the  Synoptics,  (Mk.  6,  3),  the  effective  counter- 
vailing argument  against  any  witness  he  offers,  is  probably  taken 
from  a  current  apocalyptic  theory  of  the  concealment  of  the 
Messiah  prior  to  His  sudden  revelation  in  a  sign  from  heaven, 
(Volz,  pp.  219-221).  The  possibility  that  He  might  be  the  Christ, 
(7,  26),  is  nulUfied  by  the  consideration  that  "we  know  this  man 
whence  he  is;  (cp.  6,  42  and  Mk.  6,  3);  when  Christ  comes,  no 
man  knows  whence  He  is."  Justin  Martyr,  (Dial.  c.  Trypho, 
c.  110),  is  probably  reporting  the  same  objection,  and  in  its  com- 
plete form:  the  Jewish  teachers  assert  that  Christ  has  not  yet 
come;  'or  if  they  say  that  he  has  come,  they  assert  that  it  is  not 

"For  the  correspondence  of  these  assertions  with  Synoptic  statements 
see  Wendt,  Das  J  oh.  evangelium,  pp.  178-184. 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  49 

known  who  he  is;  but  when  he  shall  become  manifest  and  glorious, 
then  it  shall  be  known  who  he  is/ 

As  in  the  Synoptics  Christ's  conciliatory  method  with  opponents 
charges  at  length  into  open  polemic,  so  in  this  later  period  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel  the  Jewish  rulers  are  attacked  as  being  themselves 
breakers  of  the  Law  of  Moses,  (7,  19) ;  and  as  manifesting  in  their 
lives  that  they  were  not,  as  they  boasted  themselves  to  be,  Abra- 
ham's seed,  but  children  of  the  Devil,  (8,  31-59).  In  the  Synop- 
tics He  had  repelled  the  Pharisaic  charge  of  His  alliance  with  the 
prince  of  demons,  with  the  warning  of  blasphemy  against  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  of  the  guilt  of  an  eternal  sin,  (Mk.  3,  28  ff.)-  But 
in  the  closing  conflict  at  Tabernacles  He  denounces  them  not 
merely  as  the  aUies  but  as  the  offspring  of  Satan :  they  are  of  their 
father  the  devil;  slaves  of  sin,  accomplishing  the  lusts  and  works  of 
their  father,  a  murderer  from  the  beginning  and  a  Kar;  as  his  off- 
spring they  now  seek  to  kill  Jesus,  (8,  37,  40),  and  are  liars  rejecting 
the  truth  and  words  of  God  in  the  Son,  (8,  55) .  In  direct  contrast 
to  theirs,  is  His  own  divine  Sonship :  He  had  a  timeless  existence 
before  Abraham's  birth  and  came  forth  from  the  Father,  (8, 
58.42) ;  His  mission  is  to  bring  freedom  from  sin's  slavery  through 
revelation  of  the  truth;  and  the  keeping  of  His  word,  the  truth  He 
has  heard  from  God,  will  deliver  from  death,  (8,  31.51). 

After  this  definite  break  with  the  rulers  in  Jerusalem  at  Taber- 
nacles, we  have  finally  in  chapters  9  to  12,  as  in  the  Synoptics,  the 
references  to  His  death  and  to  His  glorification  in  His  resurrection. 
Advancing  from  the  earUer  enigmatic  allusions  to  His  death  and 
departure  to  the  Father,  (7,  33;  8,  21.28),  He  declares  Himself 
pubUcly  at  Dedication  as  the  Good  Shepherd  giving  His  fife  for  the 
sheep,  yet  taking  it  again  that  He  may  be  the  Good  Shepherd  of  the 
other  sheep  as  well  as  of  those  of  the  Jewish  fold ;  and  closes  His 
ministry  with  the  utterance:  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Me. 

In  the  Synoptics  this  controversy  with  the  Pharisees  is  simamed 
up  in  its  essential  features  and  issues  in  Christ's  final  denunciation 
of  them  at  the  conclusion  of  his  pubUc  ministry.  Mark,  (12,  38), 
has  compressed  the  Q  discourse  in  his  report  of  the  exposure  of 
their  characteristic  ostentation,  greed  and  pretentious  piety, 
which  will  bring  them  the  greater  condemnation.  Luke,  (20,  45), 
repeats  this,  although  he  has  already  used  a  part  of  it,  (11,  43),  in 


50    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

his  controversy  section,  11,  37-52.  As  stated  earlier,  this  section 
and  Mtw.  23  point  to  a  controversy  discourse  in  Q  formed  on  the 
plan  of  seven  woes:  three  on  the  scribes  and  four  on  the  Phari- 
sees.^^ These  woes  turn  against  His  opponents,  as  in  Mk.  7,  1  ff., 
the  charges  and  attacks  they  had  made  against  himself:  Their  own 
failure  to  obey  truly  and  fully  the  Law  of  Moses,  in  spite  of  their 
unspiritual  casuistry  and  petty  tithings;  their  burdening  of  weary 
and  heavy  laden  souls  with  the  minutiae  of  oral  traditions  con- 
cerning fastings,  defilements  and  washings;  their  ostentations  and 
self-seeking  practice  of  piety  in  absolute  contrast  to  Himself,  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart.  Their  charge  that  He  is  a  deceiver  of  the  people 
is  repelled  with  the  counter-blow  that  it  is  they  who  are  blind 
guides,  shutting  up  the  Kingdom  from  those  who  would  enter,  and 
making  their  proselytes  twofold  more  the  children  of  hell  than 
themselves.  Taunts  of  disregard  of  ritual  purity  and  o£  fellowship 
with  publicans  and  sinners,  are  flung  back  with  the  expo^re  of 
their  boasted  ceremonial  purity  as  but  a  mask  for  their  inner  spirit 
of  extortion,  wickedness  and  of  such  foulness  as  is  hidden  within 
the  marble  tombs.  And  they  who  saw  in  His  life,  words  and 
mighty  works  of  mercy,  the  influence  of  the  prince  of  the  devils, 
are  at  length  denounced  as  being  themselves  controlled  by  the 
serpent  spirit  of  persecuting  hate  and  murder,  for  which  there  is 
threatening  them  the  judgment  of  hell. 

The  abiding  allegiance  of  the  Apostles  in  spite  of  these  attacks  by 
the  honored  leaders  of  the  religious  life  and  thought  of  the  nation, 
testifies  to  the  firmness  of  the  faith  founded  on  personal  fellowship 
with  Him.  Their  allegiance  points  also  to  the  development  of  their 
faith  as  the  result  of  these  controversies. 

Besides  receiving  in  them  the  increasingly  definite  self-revela- 
tions of  his  Sonship,  they  have  also  absorbed  and  adopted  His 
teachings  concerning  the  Old  Testament  ideals  of  righteousness; 
and  of  the  heavenly  Father's  grace  and  pardoning  love,  which 
will  free  them  from  the  scheme  of  salvation  by  the  method  of 
legalistic  obedience,  and  from  the  observance  of  the  human  law  of 
the  oral  tradition. 

In  Jesus*  piety  and  sinless  purity  they  found  that  the  Pharisaic 
ideal  of  an  external  and  ceremonial  purity  had  been  surpassed  and 

"  Weiss,  Qttellen  d,  Syn.  Ueberlieferung,  p.  128  ff . ;  Quellen  d.  Lukasevange- 
liums,  p.  262  ff. 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  51 

done  away.  Rejecting  utterly  the  Pharisaic  charge  of  their 
Master's  alUance  with  Beelzebul,  they  reahzed  with  absolute 
definiteness  that  it  was  indeed  the  Spirit  of  God  which  spoke  and 
wrought  through  Him;  and  in  their  fellowship  with  Him  and  devo- 
tion to  Him,  they  found  rest  imto  their  souls. 

The  Pharisaic  and  popular  demand  for  a  sign  from  heaven  in 
accordance  with  current  apocalyptic  expectations,  had  for  them 
been  already  largely  met  by  his  instruction  of  them  concerning  the 
mystery  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  In  the  parable  discourses 
simimed  up  in  Mtw.  13,  they  had  learned  that  the  Kingdom  would 
not  be  introduced  by  the  messianic  judgment,  but  by  a  preparatory 
stage  of  merciful  preparation  for  that  judgment  and  this  introduc- 
tion would  not  be  by  means  of  a  catastrophic  irruption  of  divine 
power,  but  by  a  gradual  and  extending  reception  of  the  implanted 
word  and  revelation  of  God  in  the  redeeming  life  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
Evil  will  be  rooted  out  only  at  the  final  judgment.  Admission  to 
the  Kingdom,  instead  of  being  a  prescriptive  right,  demands 
absolute  personal  self-sacrifice.  The  ideals  and  spiritual  activities 
of  the  new  life  within  the  Kingdom  are  further  portrayed  in  the 
parables  reported  by  Luke  from  his  special  source  in  the  section  9, 
51-18, 14. 

But  the  final  stage  of  developing  their  faith  in  Him  begins  at 
Caesarea  Philippi:  faith  in  Him  as  a  suffering  Christ,  and  as  a 
Christ  reigning  over  His  Kingdom  invisibly  in  a  resurrection  life. 
It  was  the  task  to  which  He  seems  to  have  devoted  the  chief  effort 
of  His  remaining  earthly  ministry  in  the  period  extending  from  the 
Transfiguration  to  his  last  discourses  with  his  Apostles  on  the  night 
in  which  He  was  betrayed.  For  this  consummating  self -revelation 
no  preparation  was  available  in  their  understanding  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament as  referring  to  the  coming  of  a  glorious  Messiah.  Nor  could 
they  fit  it  into  their  conceptions  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom, 
nor  into  their  constant  experience  hitherto  of  the  divine  support  of 
their  sinless  Master  mighty  in  word  and  deed.  He  therefore  pre- 
pares them  for  it  by  sunmioning  them  to  a  definite  profession  of 
their  faith  in  Him,  which  was  already  manifest  in  their  coming  to 
Him  as  followers  and  in  their  continued  allegiance  to  Him  in  spite 
of  the  non-fulfillment  of  the  Baptist's  prediction  of  His  initial 
judgment;  in  spite  of  His  repudiation  of  the  current  ruling 
Pharisaic  religious  ideals  and  practices;  in  spite  of  both  official  and 


52    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

general  popular  rejection  of  Him  as  the  promised  Christ;  and  above 
all  in  spite  of  his  transformation  of  their  conceptions  of  the  mes- 
sianic Kingdom.  To  them  He  is  still  the  Christ  of  God.  This 
direct  certainty  of  faith  in  Him,  He  in  turn  assures  them,  is  their  re- 
sponse of  faith  to  the  divine  revelation  in  Himself.  And  He  next 
proceeds  to  give  to  their  spokesman,  Peter  professing  the  faith  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  promise  of  the  complete  fulfilhnent  of  their 
messianic  hope  through  the  building  up  of  His  Church,  in  which 
they  shall  be  His  empowered  representatives;  and  which,  in  the 
later  New  Testament  interpretation,  (cp.,  e.  g.,  I  Cor.  15,  24; 
Ephes.  5,  26  f.,  4,  5)  shall  at  length  issue  into  the  Kingdom  of 
glory.^  To  those  however  without  their  faith  in  Him  in  response 
to  the  divine  witness  and  with  acceptance  of  His  messianic  teach- 
ing. His  Messiahship  must  still  remain  a  secret,  (Mk.  8,  30). 
Public  avowal  of  it  could  only  be  understood  in  the  terms  of  popu- 
lar messianism. 

But  it  is  on  the  basis  of  his  Apostles*  faith  in  Him  as  the  Christ 
and  of  their  hope  of  the  messianic  kingdom  He  had  preached  to 
them,  that  He  now  annoimces  openly  to  them  His  death  and  resur- 
rection. Peter's  rebuke  and  protest  discloses  that  the  earlier 
veiled  allusions  to  this  had  been  but  enigmas  only  imderstood 
after  His  resurrection,  (Cp.  John  2,  18). ^^  From  the  Day  at 
Csesarea  onward  He  was  therefore  engaged  in  preparing  them 
directly  for  His  approaching  passion.  In  the  Synoptics  its  an- 
nouncement is  inmiediately  followed  by  an  instruction  of  them  and 
other  disciples  in  the  truth  that  self-sacrifice  is  the  law  of  the  high- 
est life;  and  it  is  therefore  the  supreme  element  both  in  His  revela- 
tion of  the  Father's  will  and  in  His  perfect  obedience  as  the  Son 
of  Man.  In  the  Transfiguration,  which  is  in  closest  relation  with 
the  revelations  of  the  Day  at  Caesarea,  three  of  the  Apostles  have  a 
vision  of  Jesus  in  His  approaching  glorified  humanity;  hear  the 
Old  Testament  representatives  themselves  speak  of  the  exodus 
He  was  to  fulfill  at  Jerusalem;  and  hear  the  divine  voice  attesting 
the  Sonship  of  Him  who  thus  dies  and  is  thus  glorified. 

The  command  of  silence  concerning  this  Transfiguration  reve- 

"•  Cp.  A.  Roberteon,  Regnum  Dei,  p.  49  flf. 

^  A.  T.  Robertson,  Diet,  of  Christ  and  Gospels.  Announcements  of  Death, 
I,  p.  7  of  §  1.  Schwartzkopf,  Prophecies  of  Jesus  Christ  relating  to  His  death, 
e  tc,  p.  28  flf. 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  53 

lation  of  His  passion  and  exaltation,  until  after  His  resurrection,  is 
accompanied  by  the  fact  that  even  in  this  stage  of  ministry  to  the 
Twelve,  He  does  not  appear  to  have  presented  to  them  in  detail  the 
necessity  of  His  death  from  the  prediction  of  the  Suffering  Servant 
in  Isaiah,  or  of  the  Psalms.  Yet  His  references  to  His  approaching 
passion  are  expressed  in  Old  Testament  terms.  We  have  at  most 
three  Old  Testament  passages  concerning  the  suffering  Messiah 
referred  to  by  Christ;  and  these  at  the  very  close  of  His  ministry  to 
the  Apostles.  Immediately  preceding  the  week  of  the  passion.  He 
speaks  of  giving  His  life  a  ransom  *  for  many, '  (Mk.  10,  45) .  In 
this  use  of  'many'  instead  of  'all'  as  in  I  Tim.  2,  6,  and  Hebrews  2, 
9,  a  reference  to  Isaiah  53,  10-12,  ''bare  the  sin  of  many"  is  not 
merely  'just  possible,'  (McNeile  on  Mtw.  20,  28),  but  with 
Schwartzkopf  (1.  c,  p.  37)  is  'undoubtedly'  made.  Edghill  too, 
(Evidential  Value  of  Prophecy,  pp.  440-442),  argues  in  favor  of  this 
view.  He  also  recognizes  a  reference  to  the  same  passage  in  the 
words  at  the  Last  Supper  in  Mtw.  26,  28:  This  is  my  blood  of  the 
covenant  which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins.^ 
Again,  even  in  this  last  hour,  it  is  uttered  with  no  direct  quotation 
or  comment,  and  is  received  with  no  question  for  explanation. 

As  they  start  out  for  Gethsemane,  (Mk.  14,  27),  the  direct 
quotation  of  Zechariah  'I  will  smite  the  shepherd  and  the  sheep 
shall  be  scattered  abroad,'  is  given  primarily  as  a  warning  of  their 
imminent  abandonment  of  Him,  because  they  still  have  no  con- 
ception that  Messiah  must  suffer  according  to  the  Scriptures. 
Luke  adds,  (22,  37),  Christ's  direct  statement  that  in  Him  must  be 
fulfilled  the  Old  Testament  passage  concerning  the  Suffering 
Servant:  and  He  was  numbered  with  transgressors.  But  their 
utter  lack  of  understanding  Him  is  shown  both  in  their  answer: 
here  are  two  swords,  and  in  our  Lord's  reply  of  mingled  resignation 
and  saddest  irony:  it  is  enough. 

These  data  of  the  Gospels  favor  the  idea  that  while  Christ  was 
devoting  the  closing  months  of  His  ministry  to  the  preparation  of 
His  Apostles  for  His  death  and  its  messianic  significance;  and  while 
in  Luke  18,  31  ff..  He  assured  them  in  general  that  it  was  the  fulfill- 

28  Zahn  on  Mt.  20,  28  and  26,  28  makes  no  reference  to  the  Isaiah  passage 
but  gives  an  exegesis  of  20,  28  which  would  make  the  statements  in  Isaiah 
applicable  to  those  in  the  Grospels.  He  finds,  (Evg.  d.  Lukas,  p.  686),  the  only- 
reference  to  Isaiah,  53  in  Lk.  22,  37. 


54    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

ment  of  all  that  is  written  in  the  prophets,  there  was  until  His 
entrance  upon  His  passion,  no  specific  quotation  or  exposition  of  the 
Old  Testament  statements  related  to  it.    While  impressing  upon 
them  the  divine  necessity  of  His  death,  ''His  instruction  certainly 
did  not  aim  at  being  exhaustive  or  even  systematic ;  but  consisted 
rather  of   concise  but   expressive  hints   frequently   repeated,'' 
(Schwartzkopf,  p.  37).     The  Evangelists  distinctly  report,  (Mk.  9, 
32;  Lk.  9,  45;  18,  31)  the  Apostles'  lack  of  understanding  and 
their  fear  to  question  Him  upon  the  subject.    Not  indeed  until  the 
incomprehensible  mysterj^  of  His  death  was  dissolved  in  the  light 
of  His  resurrection  life,  could  they  recognize  that  the  divine  neces- 
sity of  His  death  was  already  declared  in  their  Scriptures.    The 
first  ministry  of  the  risen  Lord  to  the  two  disciples  en  route  to 
Emmaus  on  the  day  of  the  resurrection  is  to  show  them  from  the 
Old  Testament  Writings  that  the  Messiah  must  suffer  and  enter 
into  His  glory.    Their  hearts  were  burning  within  them  as  they 
listened  to  His  detailed  expositions;  yet  it  was  only  when  they  had 
recognized  Him  as  risen  that  they  recognized  the  Old  Testament 
teaching  in  reference  to  His  death.    It  was  likewise  only  after  His 
appearance  as  risen  Lord  to  the  Eleven  and  those  with  them,  that 
He  was  able  to  open  their  minds  to  understand  the  Scriptures  con- 
cerning the  suffering  and  rising  Christ.    ''These  are  the  words," 
(Lk.  24,  44a),  do  not   mean  a  repetition  of  the  earlier  general 
annunciation  of  the  passion  and  resurrection  in  44b ;  but  they  sum 
up  the  detailed  exposition,  (cp.  45),  now  first  given  to  the  Apostles, 
but  not  recorded  by  the  Evangelist  who  also  omits  the  record  of  the 
exposition  in  vs.  27. 

Yet  whatever  had  been  their  amazement  and  difficulties  upon 
hearing  predictions  of  His  suffering  and  death,  their  faith  in  Him  as 
the  Christ  continued  stedfast  to  the  last  hour  of  His  ministry 
among  them.  It  was  fortified  in  His  successful  closing  conflicts 
with  the  Jerusalem  rulers,  in  which  He  asserted  Himself  to  be  the 
Son  and  Heir  sent  by  the  Father  whose  mind  He  discloses  in  the 
utterance:  It  may  be  they  will  reverence  my  Son.  In  spite  of  His 
renewed  declarations  of  His  rejection  and  death,  the  Synoptics  re- 
cord as  their  last  words  to  Him  their  willingness  to  go  with  Him  to 
prison  or  death,  (Mk.  14,  31).  In  John,  upon  His  concluding  self- 
revelation,  (16,  29):  "I  came  forth  from  the  Father  and  am  come 
into  the  world;  again  I  leave  the  world  and  go  to  the  Father"  they 


THE  POLEMIC  IN  THE  GOSPELS  55 

make  their  final  confession  of  faith:  ^*By  this  we  believe  that 
Thou  earnest  forth  from  God. " 

The  immediate  collapse  of  this  faith  upon  His  crucifixion  shows 
that  without  their  realization  of  the  religious  significance  and 
divine  necessity  of  His  death  for  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom 
of  redemption,  His  death  was  able  to  shake  the  foundations  upon 
which  rested  their  faith  in  Him  as  the  Christ.  The  taunts  of  His 
enemies  were  mockeries  of  the  very  forms  of  witness  which  had  won 
them  to  belief.  The  witness  of  His  life  was  contradicted  by  His 
execution  with  criminals  as  a  malefactor.  The  witness  of  the 
Father  was  triumphantly  challenged  by  the  demand:  Let  God 
deliver  Him  now,  if  He  desireth  him;  for  He  said  I  am  the  Son  of 
God.  The  witness  of  His  words  is  confuted  by  His  death  for  blas- 
phemy against  God  and  for  deception  of  the  people.  The  witness 
of  His  miracles  is  mocked  by  His  failure  to  save  Himself:  let  the 
Christ  now  come  down  from  the  Cross,  that  we  may  see  and  be- 
heve.  However  the  Apostles  might  reject  these  alleged  conse- 
quences of  his  crucifixion,  Pilate's  superscription  was  the  death 
knell  of  their  hope  and  faith  that  it  was  He  who  should  redeem 
Israel  by  establishing  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

That  faith  could  only  be  restored  by  His  return  to  them  in  His 
resurrection  life.  His  resurrection  reaffirms,  estabUshes  and 
crowns  all  other  forms  of  witness.  It  effects  the  Bebaiosis,  the  di- 
rect certainty  of  their  completed  faith  in  Him.  They  believe  in 
Him  as  raised  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures; and  as  He  showed  Himself  in  His  risen  life  of  word  and  deed 
as  glorified  Son,  Lord  and  Christ.  Their  own  personal  experience 
of  union  with  Him  and  of  the  redemptive  power  of  His  resurrection, 
is  witnessed  to  them  in  the  gift  of  His  Spirit.  They  had  been  won 
to  this  faith  by  Christ  as  their  Paraclete,  in  personal  presence  and 
ministry  with  them.  Now  they  receive  another  Paraclete  and 
presence:  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  Christ,  in  whose  power  they  are 
commissioned  to  bring  messianic  salvation  to  the  world  through 
the  faith  which  they  themselves  had  attained  by  the  personal 
ministry  of  their  Lord. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  APOSTOLIC  APOLOGIA  OF  WITNESS  AND  THE  CALL  TO  FAITH 
IN  THE  GOSPEL  OF  SALVATION 

The  Gospel  which  the  Apostles  at  once  preached  in  Jerusalem 
was  the  Gospel  which  their  earthly  and  heavenly  Lord  had 
preached.  In  the  New  Testament  the  phrase  '  the  gospel  of  Christ ' 
is  not  the  Gospel  concerning  Christ,  but  the  Gospel  Christ  preached. 
It  has  been  shown  by  Zahn  in  his  extended  discussion  of  the  phrase 
and  its  equivalents,  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  the  mouth  of  His 
Apostles  is  not  essentially  different  from  what  it  was  in  the  mouth 
of  the  great  Apostle  of  our  profession.  The  'preaching  of  Jesus  ' 
to  which  Paul  refers  at  the  close  of  Romans  is  the  original  form 
of  the  Gospel,  which  when  preached  by  the  Apostles  after  His 
departure  does  not  cease  to  be  the  Gospel  of  Christ.'  Introd., 
§  48  n.  2,  II,  377.  This  essential  identity  of  Apostolic  preaching  and 
Christ's  Gospel  is  asserted  by  Peter  when  describing  His  message 
to  Cornelius  to  be  the  Word  which  God  sent,  preaching  good  tidings 
of  peace  by  Jesus  Christ.  Even  more  definitely  in  I  John  1,  3.5, 
the  Gospel  is  the  message  d77eXta,  the  Apostles  heard  from  Christ, 
which  they  declare,  di/a77^X€ti/,  and  report,  airayyiKKeLv.  The 
same  claim  is  made  in  Hbws.  2,  5:  the  New  Testament  salvation 
was  spoken  first  through  the  Lord,  and  later  was  confirmed  to 
Christians  by  those  who  heard  him.  As  then  the  Apostles  preached 
the  same  Gospel  as  their  Lord,  and  sought  to  win  their  hearers  to 
their  own  faith  in  Him,  we  could  not  conceive  of  any  other  method 
for  the  genesis  of  this  faith  than  the  method  by  which  they  them- 
selves had  become  believers. 

A  comparative  study  of  the  references  to  the  original  propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  points  to  a  common  type  of  oral  Gospel 
preaching,  which  was  enlarged  in  content  and  detail  in  the  primi- 
tive instruction  preparatory  to  baptism.  One  portion  of  this 
related  to  'the  things  concerning  Jesus.'  In  the  teaching  and 
prophetic  exhortation  in  the  Church  worship,  provision  was  made 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  57 

to  '  stir  up  the  minds  of  believers  by  putting  them  in  remembrance 
of  these  things,  though  they  know  them  and  are  established  in  the 
truth  which  is  present  with  them/  II  Pet.  1,  12.  To  'remember 
the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus '  is  the  primitive  phrase  for  reference 
to  the  repetition,  exposition  and  apphcation  in  the  Church  services 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  words  and  deeds  of  Christ. 

1.  THE  APOLOGIA  AND  CALL  OF  THE  GOSPEL  TO  THE  JEWS  AND 

GODFEARERS 

The  aims,  contents,  method  and  apologia  of  the  primitive  type 
of  the  oral  Gospel  to  Israel,  may  be  learned  from  the  summaries  of 
the  preaching  in  Acts,  chaps.  2,  3,  10  and  13.  These  and  the 
references  in  the  Epistles  to  this  primitive  propaganda,  can  be  used 
as  trustworthy  sources,  since  they  can  be  shown  to  be,  and  are 
recognized  to  be,  free  from  suspicion  of  any  later  dogmatic  bias. 
From  a  comparison  of  the  topics  in  these  discourses  we  may  judge 
that  the  oral  preaching  to  Jews  would  normally  include  the  follow- 
ing subjects  in  the  apologia  that  Jesus  was  Christ  and  Lord:  the 
assertion  that  He  was  Son  of  David;  the  witness  of  the  Baptist; 
the  witness  of  His  own  life,  teachings  and  work;  of  His  miracles; 
and  of  the  Old  Testament;  the  Apostles'  witness  to  His  sinless 
sufferings,  witli  detailed  narrative  of  His  rejection  by  the  Jews, 
His  condemnation  by  Pilate,  His  crucifixion  on  the  tree  and  burial 
in  the  tomb;  to  His  resurrection  on  the  third  day  and  His  appear- 
ances to  the  disciples  for  many  days,  when  He  ate  and  drank  with 
them;  to  His  commission  to  them  to  preach  a  universal  salvation; 
to  his  ascension,  exaltation  and  heavenly  ministry;  and  to  His 
coming  again  for  world  judgment.  Upon  this  apologia  is  based  the 
offer  of  salvation  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  warning  to 
beware  of  neglect  of  so  great  salvation.  All  these  subjects  are  to  be 
found  in  a  combination  of  the  four  reports  of  the  oral  Gospel  to  the 
Jews;  and  with  certain  exceptions  to  be  noted,  the  principal  and 
controlling  subjects  appear  in  the  separate  reports.^  The  relations 
of  these  subjects  and  the  method  of  their  presentation  can  be  most 
clearly  recognized  in  Peter's  discourse  at  Pentecost  in  Acts  2. 

It  is  a  divine  call  to  accept  and  share  with  the  already  believing 

^  Zahn  has  discussed  the  Unwritten  Gospel  in  his  Introduction,  §  48;  and 
Missionary  Methods  in  the  Apostolic  Age  in  his  Skizzen  atis  dem  Leben  der 
Alten  Kirche,  1898,  p.  42  ff. 


58    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Apostles  and  brethren,  salvation  by  faith  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
It  is  an  appeal  and  summons  based  on  their  witness:  a  call  to 
repent  and  be  baptized  upon  profession  of  faith  in  the  name,  the 
self-revelation  of  Jesus,  for  the  remission  of  sins  and  reception  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  vs.  38.  It  is  likewise  so  presented  as  a  word  of 
salvation  in  the  other  reports:  3, 19.26;  10,  36,  cp.  11,  14;  13,  26.38; 
and  in  the  latest  written  Gospel,  John  20,  31.  Response  of  faith  in 
this  call  involves,  however,  the  necessity  that  the  hearers  should 
know  assuredly  that  the  crucified  Jesus  is  definitely  avouched  by 
God  as  Lord  and  Christ,  vs.  36.  The  certitude  of  faith  must  rest 
on  the  apologias  and  witness  of  the  Gospel.  Hence  Peter  begins, 
vs.  16,  with  the  claim  that  the  disciples'  experience  of  a  new  life  of 
faith  and  their  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  evidence  that  Messiah  is  come; 
and  is  now  imparting  the  redemptive  blessings  of  the  messianic 
kingdom  as  predicted  by  Joel.  On  this  basis  of  Christian  ex- 
perience he  proceeds  to  bear  his  witness  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah. 
For  these  men  of  Jerusalem  have  themselves  already  had  the 
witness  of  the  life  and  character  of  'Jesus  of  Nazareth,'  vs.  22. 
This  title  with  which  the  apologia  opens,  is  a  summary  reference  to 
Christ's  self-revelation  in  his  ministry  among  them.  It  sums  up 
the  content  of  the  recurring  phrase:  Hhe  things  concerning  Jesus,' 
TCL  Trept  'I77<7o0.  Should  any  hearer  ask,  'what  things,'  we  already 
have  in  Lk.  24,  18  f.,  the  answer:  'Dost  thou  sojourn  alone  in 
Jerusalem  and  knowest  not  the  things  concerning  Jesus  the 
Nazarene,  who  was  a  prophet  mighty  in  deed  and  word  before 
God  and  all  the  people?  "  Luke  in  his  Gospel  has  already  recorded 
these  things  for  the  readers  of  Acts.  But  in  the  propaganda 
preaching  and  especially  in  districts  distant  from  the  centers  of 
Christ's  own  ministry,  this  witness  of  the  character,  words  and 
deeds  of  Jesus  must  have  been  given  in  its  essential  contents. 
In  the  report  of  the  next  sermon  this  reference  to  the  revelation  in 
his  life  is  again  summed  up  in  the  titles:  the  Holy  and  Righteous 
One;  the  Prince  of  Life,  3, 14  f.  Accompanying  this  witness  of  His 
redemptive  life  and  work  is  the  witness  God  gave  to  Him :  He  has 
been  approved  of  God  unto  them  by  the  miracles  God  did  by  Him, 
even  as  they  themselves  know.  They  are  never  denied  by  the 
Apostles'  opponents;  and  the  original  or  continued  disparagement 
of  them  by  the  Jewish  rulers  as  wrought  by  Satanic  power,  is  met 
as  in  the  Gospels  by  pointing  out  that  in  His  exorcisms  Christ 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  59 

healed  and  freed  those  who  were  held  down  by  the  tyranny  of  the 
Devil,  and  is  thus  not  the  ally  but  opponent  of  Satan,  10,  38. 

To  claim  for  Him,  however,  the  title  of  Christ,  is  in  itself  an  ap- 
peal to  prophecy.  Not  only  to  the  Jew  but  to  the  Godfearer, 
10,  43,  the  heathen,  Rom.  1,  2;  3,  21,  and  to  all  beUevers  in  a 
historic  revelation  of  a  coming  redemption,  the  Gospel  must 
furnish  the  witness  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets.  It  is  therefore  an 
essential  element  in  all  forms  of  New  Testament  Gospel  preaching. 
But  the  obstacle  to  a  recognition  of  this  testimony,  and  to  an 
acceptance  of  the  witness  to  which  Peter  has  already  appealed,  was 
the  crucifixion.  Even  to  Christ's  disciples,  Lk.  24,  21,  the  Cross 
dispelled  the  otherwise  assured  hope  that  Jesus  was  he  that  should 
redeem  Israel.  How  much  more  was  that  Cross  a  barrier  to  faith 
for  all  classes  of  contemporary  Jews,  whose  messianic  hopes  and 
ideals  based  on  the  Prophets,  it  so  absolutely  contradicted.  A 
suffering  messiah  had  no  place  in  the  Jewish  thought  of  that  age. 
While  G.  Dalman  ^  has  shown  the  later  development  of  the  idea  of 
a  suffering  messiah  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Synagogue  in  the  first 
Christian  millennium,  the  Jews  of  the  Apostolic  days  did  not  so 
read  or  understand  their  prophets;  and  "in  the  pre-Christian 
extracanonical  literature,  there  is  no  trace  of  the  idea."  ^  Defense 
of  the  Gospel  to  Israel  must  therefore  meet  the  demand  for  proofs 
that  the  Messiah  according  to  Old  Testament  predictions  was  to 
suffer  and  thereby  enter  His  glory. 

These  proofs  accordingly  appear  in  all  the  propaganda  to  Jews 
as  a  fundamental  element  in  the  ApostoUc  apologia:  by  Peter  at 
Jerusalem,  2,  23;  3,  18;  4,  11;  by  Paul  in  Pisidian  Antioch,  13,  27, 
and  at  Thessalonica,  17,  2,  where  as  his  custom  was  he  reasoned 
with  them  in  the  synagogue  from  the  Scriptures,  opening  and 
alleging  that  it  behooved  the  Christ  to  suffer.  At  Csesarea  before 
Agrippa,  he  characterizes  his  ministry  as  saying  nothing  but  what 
the  prophets  and  Moses  did  say  should  come;  and  first,  'how  that 
the  Christ  must  suffer.^  The  data  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
support  the  theory  that  very  early  a  collection  was  made  of  the 
Old  Testament  messianic  passages,  especially  those  relating  to  the 

^  Der  leidende  Messias,  1887. 
3  V.  H.  Stanton,  H,  D.  B.,  Ill,  354  b. 

*  E.  A.  Edghill,  Evidential  Valve  of  Prophecy,  discusses  in  detail  the  use  of 
prophecy  in  the  Acts,  pp.  484-524. 


60    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

suffering  Messiah.  The  growth  of  such  a  collection  can  be  traced 
through  the  ApostoUc  Fathers  and  second-century  apologists 
down  to  the  Testimonia,  or  Old  Testament  witness,  of  Cyprian.^ 

So  throughly  familiar  are  the  original  readers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment books  with  this  witness  of  prophecy,  that  the  writers  are 
content  to  refer  to  it  in  a  condensed  sunomary  as  in  Lk.  24,  26  f. 
and  45  f . ;  or  as  in  the  first  sermon  where  Peter's  presentation  of  it 
is  compressed  in  the  statement  that  Jesus'  death  was  'by  the 
determinable  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God, '  2,  23.  We  can 
conceive  of  few  occasions  where  this  witness  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  sufferings  and  death  of  the  Christ  would  be  given  in  fuller 
detail  than  here  at  Pentecost  before  the  men  who  had  been  associa- 
ted with  Jesus'  crucifixion,  and  by  the  men  whose  minds  had  first 
been  opened  by  the  risen  Christ  to  understand  those  Scriptures. 
Yet  neither  here  nor  in  any  other  portion  of  the  New  Testament  is 
it  presented  in  detail  and  in  a  formal  connected  argument,  as  we 
should  expect  if  these  writings  were  intended  directly  for  those 
who  were  not  yet  believers,  and  if  they  were  primarily  and  domi- 
nantly  apologetic. 

This  witness  of  prophecy  concerning  the  death  of  Christ  is 
naturally  connected  directly  with  its  witness  to  His  resurrection. 
As  however  on  Easter  Day  it  was  the  appearance  of  Jesus  risen 
that  made  possible  the  Apostles'  recognition  and  understanding 
of  the  prophecies  of  His  death  and  resurrection,  so  both  Peter  at 
Jerusalem,  2,  24,  and  Paul  in  Pisidian  Antioch,  13,  30  f.,  introduce 
the  prophecy  of  the  resurrection  by  the  declaration  of  the  fact  that 
God  has  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead.  On  the  basis  of  this  an- 
nouncement, Psabn  16  is  interpreted  as  pointing  to,  and  as  receiv- 
ing its  fulfilbnent  in,  the  dead,  buried  and  risen  messianic  Son  of 
David.  The  validity  of  this  interpretation  of  prophecy  has,  how- 
ever, still  to  be  supported  by  the  witness  of  the  Apostles  to  the  fact 
of  their  Lord's  resurrection.  And  on  this  first  announcement  of 
His  resurrection,  their  testimony  must  evidently  have  been  given 
in  fullness  of  detail.  The  brief  assertion,  'of  which  we  all  are  wit- 
nesses,* vs.  32,  would  clearly  be  inadequate  for  conviction.  Even 
in  the  extremely  condensed  report,  indications  of  a  fuller  testimony 
may  be  recognized.    The  reference  in  vs.  29  to  David's  death, 

» See  J.  R.  Harris,  Teatimonies,  Pt.  1, 1916,  and  the  references  to  Florilegia 
in  Moffatt's  IrUrod. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  61 

burial  and  tomb  suggest  their  application  in  the  Apostle's  inter- 
pretation of  the  Psalm,  to  the  significant  facts  of  Christ's  death 
and  His  burial  in  the  tomb;  and  the  mention  of  the  resurrection 
on  the  third  day  in  the  oral  gospel  to  Cornelius,  10,  40  f.,  and 
in  the  primitive  tradition  repeated  by  Paul,  I  Cor.  15,  1.4,  would 
reasonably  indicate  a  recital  in  their  preaching  of  their  experiences 
at  the  tomb  and  of  its  condition  on  the  third  day.  In  addition,  the 
emphasis  by  both  Apostles,  2,  31 ;  13,  36,  on  the  fact  that  unlike 
David,  Jesus  risen  '  saw  no  corruption, '  likewise  suggests  that  in 
their  propaganda  preaching  of  which  we  have  received  only  sum- 
maries, they  testified  to  Christ's  resurrection  appearances  in  a 
form  revealing  that  he  was  freed  from  death's  dominion.  The  full 
witness  of  the  Apostles  to  the  resurrection  is,  however,  like  the  Old 
Testament  witness  to  the  suffering  Christ,  assumed  throughout 
the  Acts;  since  it  has  already  been  recalled  in  Luke's  Gospel,  and 
since  his  readers  have  been  famiUar  with  it  since  their  conversion.* 

But  the  climax  of  the  Apostle's  apologia  is  his  declaration  of 
the  heavenly  exaltation  of  the  risen  Jesus  as  Lord.  With  what 
witness,  however,  can  such  an  assertion  concerning  his  state  in  the 
invisible  world  be  supported,  and  be  made  a  basis  of  conviction 
of  its  hearers?  As  in  their  defense  of  the  gospel  of  the  resurrec- 
tion they  offered  the  evidence  of  his  appearances  to  them,  it  is 
possible  that  they  may  also  in  connection  with  2,  34  f.  have  re- 
ported his  Ascension.  Chase,  Credibility  of  Acts,  p.  151,  and 
Edghill,  Evidential  Value  of  Prophecy,  p.  497,  have  suggested  that 
these  verses  may  include  a  reference  to  Psalm  68,  11;  since  they 
take  up  three  of  its  words:  u^oj^ets,  \ap<j)v  and  avi^rj;  and  it  is 
this  Psalm  passage  that  is  applied  in  Eph.  4,  8  ff .  to  the  Ascension 
and  the  succeeding  gifts.  In  any  case  Peter  adds  as  in  his  defense 
of  the  resurrection,  the  witness  of  the  Old  Testament:  using,  as 
throughout  the  New  Testament,  Ps.  110  as  a  prediction  of  the 
exaltation  of  the  Messiah.  And  in  support  of  this  fulfilhnent  of 
it,  he  points  his  hearers  to  the  effects  of  Jesus'  exaltation,  as  seen 

"  In  preaching  to  Cornelius,  10,  42  flf.,  there  is  an  announcement  at  this 
point,  as  in  the  written  gospels,  of  an  Apostolic  Commission  from  the  risen 
Christ  to  preach  his  Gospel  of  salvation.  Peter's  concluding  exhortation, 
2,  38  ff.,  assumes  and  recalls  this  commission;  cp.  also  3,  19.26;  4,  12.19. 
Paul  in  his  synagogue  sermon  in  Acts  13  does  not  definitely  refer  to  the  com- 
mission of  the  original  Apostles;  but  in  26,  16  ff.  connects  his  own  commission 
as  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  with  the  appearance  to  him  of  the  risen  Jesus. 


62    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

in  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  to  His  disciples:  'Being  by  the  right  hand 
of  God  exalted  and  having  received  of  the  Father  the  promise  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  he  both  poured  forth  this  which  ye  see  and  hear.' 
This  ministry  of  the  exalted  Jesus  could  be  recognized  both  in 
the  special  spiritual  gifts  at  Pentecost  and  also  then  and  later 
in  the  absolute  conviction  and  in  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  experi- 
ence of  the  Apostohc  preachers.  There  was  a  boldness,  irapprjala, 
fervor,  and  clearness  of  piercing  insight  into  the  hearers'  mental 
and  spiritual  needs  and  hopes;  a  manifestation  of  certitude, 
faces  shining  like  angels;  at  times  a  rush  of  power,  leading  the 
heathen  Festus  to  exclaim  that  the  preacher  was  raving;  or  when 
as  in  Corinth,  they  preached  in  weakness,  fear  and  trembling, 
yet  it  was  with  the  evident  presence  of  the  Spirit  and  with  power. 
The  manifestations  of  the  Spirit  in  the  believers  at  Pentecost 
were  gifts  from  the  exalted  Jesus;  and  they  completed  the  mani- 
fold witness  by  which  the  hearers  could  know  assuredly  that  God 
had  made  Him  both  Lord  and  Christ. 

This  is  Luke's  report  for  beUevers,  of  the  fundamental  outlines 
of  the  first  witness  and  defense  of  the  redemptive  facts  attesting 
Jesus  as  the  Christ.  Its  general  characteristics  and  structure  are 
controlled  by  its  direct  purpose.  It  is  not  an  apology  to  meet 
later  or  currect  objections  to  Jesus'  character,  miracles,  failure 
to  fulfill  prophecy,  or  to  the  reality  of  His  resurrection  and  of  the 
spiritual  gifts  of  His  disciples.  It  records  the  ApostoUc  presenta- 
tion of  Him  as  redeeming  Lord  and  Christ  as  the  basis  of  their  call 
to  salvation  by  faith  in  Him  as  thus  presented.  On  this  occasion, 
as  we  should  expect,  and  as  we  find,  their  witness  to  Him  centers 
around  the  Gospel  of  His  resurrection .  It  was  then  first  announced ; 
and  with  no  suggestion  of  the  possibility  of  denial.  It  here  crowns 
the  witness  of  His  life  and  miracles.  The  Old  Testament  prophecy 
relating  to  it,  reveals  at  the  same  time  the  determinate  counsel 
and  foreknowledge  of  God  concerning  His  death,  and  prepares  for 
the  ApostoUc  testimony  to  its  fulfillment.  And  it  is  this  gospel 
of  the  resurrection  which  makes  possible  the  gospel  of  Jesus' 
exaltation  and  heavenly  ministry  in  which  he  bestows  forgiveness 
of  sins  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  2,  38. 

The  result  was  that  of  the  multitudes  at  the  feast  of  Pentecost, 
the  majority  of  whom  were  famiUar  with  the  teachings  and  works 
of  Jesus,  three  thousand  were  spiritually  receptive,  vs.  37,  to- 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  63 

wards  this  message  of  combined  witness  and  appeal;  and  in  bap- 
tism professed  their  acceptance  of  it  with  penitence  and  faith. 
The  effect  on  the  rest  of  the  multitude  is  not  indicated;  save  that 
we  learn  of  no  opposition,  and  that  in  this  earUest  period  the  dis- 
ciples had  favor  with  all  the  people.  But  whije  the  people  of 
Jerusalem  thus  looked  with  favor  on  the  new  movement  and  its 
teaching,  they  are  thereby  described  as  not  looking  upon  it  with 
conviction.  Any  further  witness  to  them  must  necessarily  follow 
the  essential  lines  of  the  sermon  in  Acts  2.  So  we  find  it  in  Luke's 
reports  of  later  propaganda  among  the  Jews.  Differences  in  the 
several  Lukan  reports  of  the  primitive  apologia  may  be  due  partly 
to  varying  measures  of  condensation;  to  the  fact  that  the  later 
reports  assume  the  lines  of  testimony  previously  recorded;  to  the 
special  features  and  interests  of  his  various  sources  of  these  dis- 
courses; but  principally  to  the  definite  exigencies  of  the  occasions 
on  which  these  later  discourses  were  spoken. 

In  Acts  3  the  preaching  of  Peter  after  healing  the  lame  man 
marks  a  new  stage  of  evangelization.  The  hearers  are  men  of 
Jerusalem  famiUar  with  the  Apostolic  message  in  the  previous 
chapter.  It  has,  however,  not  led  to  their  conviction  of  its  truth. 
And  we  may  judge  from  the  new  form,  new  emphases  and  de- 
velopments in  Peter's  renewal  of  it,  that  the  obstacle  to  their 
belief  was  the  death  of  Jesus  as  a  malefactor;  thus  contradicting 
their  conception  of  the  messianic  predictions  and  rebutting  the 
claim  of  His  resurrection.  There  was  besides  the  difficulty  of 
grasping  the  significance  of  an  invisible  Messiah,  whose  absence 
precluded  the  establishment  of  the  messianic  kingdom  of  their 
expectations.  To  meet  these  difficulties  Peter  addresses  to  the 
crowds  attracted  by  the  miracle  of  heaHng,  a  new  call  to  salvation, 
3,  19.26,  by  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Christ. 

Central  again  for  the  genesis  of  this  faith  is  the  claim  that  God 
has  glorified  Jesus,  vs.  13.  The  self-revelation  of  His  earthly  fife 
is  not  given,  either  because  it  is  already  known  to  the  hearers, 
or  to  the  Christian  readers  of  the  Acts;  but  it  is  summed  up  in 
entitling  Him  the  Servant,  the  Holy  and  Just  One  and  the  Prince 
of  Life,  which  titles  themselves  express  his  fulfillment  of  the  Old 
Testament  messianic  ideals,  Edghill,  500  f .  He  faces  at  once  the 
skandalon  of  the  Cross;  and  instead  of  apology  for  its  ignominy, 
charges  his  hearers  with  the  crime  and  sin  of  delivering  to  death 


64    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Him  whom  they  knew  as  the  Holy  and  Just  One;  whose  innocence 
even  the  heathen  Pilate  recognized,  when  they  preferred  a  mur- 
derer to  Him  and  murdered  the  Prince  of  Life.  Again  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  divine  counsel  in  His  death  is  shown  in  God's  raising 
Him  from  the  dead ;  and  the  Apostle's  testimony  to  this  fact  was 
either  given  at  length  in  the  original  discourse,  or  is  assumed  to 
be  already  known  by  his  hearers.  But  a  new  testimony  to  it  is 
now  given  in  the  fact  of  this  miracle  of  healing  wrought  through 
them  by  the  risen  Jesus,  3,  12.16;  4,  9.10. 

In  general  this  is  but  a  renewal  of  the  claims  in  the  Pentecost 
sermon  which  have  hitherto  failed  to  win  the  present  hearers' 
acceptance.  The  Apostle  cannot  offer  new  Unes  of  evidence  in 
support  of  them;  but  he  can  hope  to  remove  their  special  difficulty 
of  beheving  that  the  Christ  was  according  to  the  Old  Testament 
to  suffer,  by  a  fuller  development  of  the  argument  from  prophecy 
on  this  subject.  He  had  intimated  his  intention  to  do  this  in  his 
opening  words  announcing  the  theme  of  his  sermon :  God  has  glori- 
fied his  Servant  Jesus.  These  words  are  recognized  to  be  an  as- 
sertion that  the  passage  in  Isaiah  52,  13-53,  12,  concerning  the 
suffering  and  exalted  Servant,  points  to  the  death  and  resurrection 
of  Jesus.  And  now,  3,  18,  he  adds  to  the  Pentecost  sermon  the 
definite  statement :  The  things  which  God  foreshowed  by  the  mouth 
of  all  the  prophets,  that  His  Christ  should  suffer.  He  thus  fulfilled. 
This  mere  assertion  was  not  sufficient  to  produce  conviction. 
The  definite  and  complete  proof  of  it  was  precisely  what  was 
needed  by  the  hearers  to  enable  them  to  accept  it,  and  along  with 
it  the  other  lines  of  testimony.  We  must  conclude  that  this  was 
then  given  to  them;  though  as  before  noted,  it  is  not  here  re- 
corded for  the  believing  readers  who  were  already  fully  acquainted 
with  it. 

The  sufferings  of  the  Christ  are  next,  vs.  19,  related  to  the  offer 
of  salvation ;  and  this  in  turn  is  connected  with  the  other  Jewish 
difficulty  of  an  invisible  Messiah  and  the  delay  in  the  restoration 
of  all  things  promised  in  the  messianic  prophecies.  The  Apostles 
themselves  had  already  questioned  the  risen  Christ  concerning 
this  subject,  1,  6-8,  and  received  answer  that  the  times  and  seasons 
were  in  the  Father's  own  power.  Here  in  v.  21  is  an  echo  of  that 
answer:  the  heavens  must  receive  Him  until  the  times  of  restora- 
tion.   His  Parousia  will  be  the  season  of  'refreshment';  probably 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  65 

from  the  tribulations  of  the  last  times.  The  subject  appears  to 
be  one  of  the  topics  in  the  primitive  Gentile  propaganda,  II  Thess. 
1,  7-10;  and  we  can  note  its  continued  discussion  in  the  later 
period:  cp.  Heb.  9,  24-28;  II  Peter,  3,  8ff.;  Rev.  6,  10 f.  Yet 
Luke  has  again  not  recorded  Peter's  discussion  of  this  prominent 
subject  of  eschatology,  save  in  the  general  reference  in  vss.  22  to 
25  to  the  whole  prophetic  teaching  concerning  'Hhese  days.'  From 
this  teaching  he  quotes  but  two  texts:  one  the  warning  of  Moses 
against  the  rejection  of  the  'prophet  like  unto  me*;  the  other  an 
appeal  to  them  as  sons  of  the  prophets  and  of  the  Covenant  to 
accept  the  covenant  promise  of  universal  blessing  in  the  seed  of 
Abraham. 

The  success  of  this  discourse  in  meeting  the  special  Jewish  diffi- 
culties, is  seen  both  in  the  increase  of  converts  to  five  thousand, 
and  also  in  the  attempt  of  the  Sadducean  element  in  the  Sanhedrin, 
cp.  4,  5;  5,  17,  to  repress  the  rising  movement  based  on  the  preach- 
ing of  the  resurrection,  to  which  the  Sadducees  were  fundamen- 
tally opposed,  23,  8.  Before  the  Sanhedrin  therefore  the  Apostles 
repeat  the  claim  that  the  miracle  of  healing  had  been  effected  by 
the  power  of  the  risen  Jesus;  and  thereby  witnessed  to  the  ful- 
fiUment  of  Christ's  own  words  to  the  Sanhedrin:  He,  the  stone, 
rejected  by  the  Jewish  builders  has  become  the  head  of  the  comer, 
Mtw.  21,  42.  At  their  subsequent  arrest  and  examination  by  the 
Council,  5,  30  ff.,  we  observe  that  no  reference  is  recorded  of  the 
witness  of  Christ's  character,  teachings  and  works  since  the  Coun- 
cil had  already  rejected  this  by  their  crucifixion  of  Jesus;  nor  to 
the  witness  of  prophecy,  in  whose  interpretation  by  Pharisaic 
messianism  the  Sadducean  element  had  no  interest.  The  apostolic 
apologia  in  these  circumstances  centers  in  the  resurrection  and 
divine  exaltation  of  Jesus  as  Israel's  redeemer;  with  no  fear  of 
contradiction  of  their  witness  to  the  Easter  facts;  with  the  wit- 
ness of  miracles  performed  in  the  name  and  power  of  the  risen 
Jesus;  and  with  the  witness  of  the  religious  experience  of  believers, 
in  their  possession  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

After  this  propaganda  to  Jews  in  Jerusalem,  with  its  indication 
of  a  definite  type  of  apologia  whose  several  lines  of  defense  could 
be  developed  to  meet  special  demands,  Luke  has  added  a  history 
of  the  extension  of  the  gospel  to  Samaritans,  to  the  Ethiopian 
proselyte  and  to  Jews  only  in  Phoenicia,  Cyprus  and   Antioch. 


66    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

The  absence  in  these  narratives  of  the  discourses  which  led  to 
conversion,  may  be  partly  explained  as  by  Spitta  and  J.  Weiss 
as  due  to  the  characteristics  of  the  sources  used  by  Luke  in  these 
sections;  ^  or  to  Luke's  use  of  them  to  emphasize  the  fact  of  the 
admission  of  the  new  groups  of  converts  rather  than  the  mode  of 
their  conversion.  That  this  was  effected  by  the  original  prop- 
aganda preaching  of  Acts  1-5,  with  the  necessary  adaptations 
and  special  emphases,  may  be  concluded  from  Luke's  references 
to  it  by  his  usual  sunoLmarizing  general  titles  for  the  gospel  preach- 
ing. Thus  in  Samaria,  corresponding  to  the  general  description 
of  the  'evangeUzing'  of  Peter  and  John,  8,  25,  as  'testifying  and 
speaking  the  word  of  the  Lord,'  cp.  2,  40,  and  to  the  Samaritan 
reception  of  'the  word  of  God,'  8,  14,  PhiUp  preached  the  Christ, 
vs.  5;  and  'evangeUzed  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  vs.  12.  At  the  close  of  Acts,  Luke  sums  up 
Paul's  work  at  Rome  in  very  similar  terms:  preaching  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  teaching  the  things  concerning  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Paul  could  base  his  exposition  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Jews  in  Rome, 
both  on  the  Law  of  Moses  and  on  the  prophets,  28,  23.  But  to 
the  Samaritans  whose  only  sacred  book  was  the  Pentateuch,  the 
general  Christian  apologia  had  clearly  to  be  presented  in  a  special 
method.  Concerning  this  we  have  no  record.  Yet  the  opening 
statement,  vs.  5,  that  Philip  preached  the  Christ  to  them  would 
justify  us  in  concluding  that  his  preaching  would  have  to  be 
founded  on  a  declaration  of  the  Jewish  Christian  doctrine  of  Mes- 
siah as  correcting  and  completing  the  messianism  and  eschatology 
of  Samaria.  Professor  Montgomery  in  his  presentation  of  these 
doctrines*  has  shown  that  'the  Samaritan  notion  of  Messiah, 
which  can  be  traced  back  to  a  fairly  early  period,  makes  of  him 
only  a  second  Moses;  he  is  primarily  the  prophet  that  shall  come, 
like  Moses;  he  was  to  be  a  revealer  of  hidden  or  lost  truth;  his 
proper  title  is  Ta'eb,  the  Restorer,  whose  chief  function  is  to  in- 
troduce the  millennium,  that  will  be  followed  by  the  day  of  ven- 
geance, resurrection  and  judgment.' 

Philip's  Gospel  of  Christ  'who  will  declare  all  things,'  John  4, 

'  The  theories  as  to  these  sources  are  tabulated  by  Moffatt,  Inirodvction^ 
286  ff. 

•  J.  A.  Montgomery,  The  SamarUans,  p.  239  flf.,  especially  p.  243  ff.  on  the 
Samaritan  notion  of  Messiah. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  67 

25,  is  necessarily  based  on  Jesus'  own  preaching  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  vs.  12;  and  the  witness  of  these  words  of  Jesus  is  sup- 
ported by  the  witness  'concerning  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ' :  His 
self-revelation  in  His  life,  teaching,  redemptive  works,  death  and 
resurrection.  In  all  accounts  of  initial  preaching  to  Jews,  special 
mention  is  made  of  the  witness  of  the  Old  Testament  Psalmists 
and  Prophets  to  Messiah's  death,  resurrection  and  exaltation. 
Its  omission  here  may  have  its  sufficient  explanation  in  the  brev- 
ity of  the  narrative.  But  while  it  was  probably  referred  to  as 
being  both  a  constant  element  of  apologia  and  also  of  the  prim- 
itive baptismal  profession  as  early  as  the  conversion  of  Paul, 
which  was  contemporary  with  this  period,  I  Cor.  15,  3  f.;  cp.  vs.  1, 
yet  we  should  anticipate  that  it  would  not  have  its  usual  prom- 
inence among  hearers  who  neither  recognized  nor  knew  the  Hebrew 
prophecies;  who  would  find  no  stumbling  block  in  the  doctrine  of 
a  suffering  Messiah;  and  in  whose  later  literature,  cp.  Montgomery, 
pp.  248  ff.,  Messiah  was  to  die  in  peace.  In  this  situation  the 
emphasis  on  Philip's  miracles,  vss.  6.7,  13,  and  the  interest  in  the 
gifts  of  the  Spirit,  with  which  he  was  himself  endowed,  6,  3,  be- 
come specially  significant.  As  in  Acts  3  and  4,  such  miracles  and 
gifts  are  witnesses  to  the  reality  and  redemptive  power  of  Jesus' 
resurrection  and  heavenly  ministry;  and  led  to  their  faith  in 
PhiUp's  Gospel  and  to  their  baptism  into  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus. 

The  next  step  in  the  extension  of  the  Gospel  is  PhiUp's  preaching 
to  the  Ethiopian  proselyte,  8,  26  ff .  Here  again  the  special  in- 
terest of  the  writer  in  the  admission  of  the  Eunuch  into  the  Church, 
is  shown  in  his  recording  the  convert's  question :  what  doth  hinder 
me  to  be  baptized;  and  in  the  divine  directions  in  vss.  26.29,  cp. 
10,  47;  11,  17.  And  again  the  preaching  is  summarized  in  the 
statement:  he  brought  to  him  the  good  tidings  of  Jesus,  vs.  35. 
e\rqyyeyL<raTO  avTco  t6v  *7](tovv.  But  in  this  case  it  was  dis- 
tinctly based  on  the  messianic  interpretation  of  the  suffering  and 
death  of  the  Servant  in  Is.  53. 

In  contrast  to  these  brief  and  general  sununaries  of  the  Gospel 
apologia  in  Philip's  evangeUzation,  Luke  has  recorded  in  unusually 
definite  outUnes  Peter's  presentation  of  the  Gospel  to  ComeUus, 
10,  34-43.  Although  it  is  addressed  to  a  heathen  godfearer,  it 
may  be  considered  here  in  connection  with  the  propaganda  among 


68    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Jews,  since  he  declares  that  it  is  the  Gospel  to  Israel  which  he 
will  preach  to  this  man  who  is  already  famiUar  with  the  Christian 
movement  throughout  all  Judaea,  vs.  37.  As  in  the  two  earUer 
discourses  in  Acts  2  and  3,  the  primary  and  controlling  interest 
of  both  preacher  and  hearers  is  in  the  Gospel  as  an  offer  of  per- 
sonal redemption.  ComeHus  as  a  pious  godfearer  had  already 
accepted  the  Jewish  beUef  in  a  coming  world  judgment.  And  this 
beUef  had  awakened  his  sense  of  need  of  forgiveness  and  acceptance 
with  God.  When  therefore  he  was  divinely  moved  to  send  for 
Peter,  it  was  'to  hear  words  by  which  he  should  be  saved,'  11, 
13  f.  Hence  to  him  Peter  brings,  as  to  the  Jews  at  Pentecost,  the 
"word  God  sent,  preaching  peace  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of 
all."  Again  the  defense  and  exposition  of  these  claims  is  given 
in  the  apologia  of  witness:  the  preparatory  witness  of  the  Baptist; 
God's  witness  in  Jesus'  baptism,  when  He  was  anointed  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  with  power;  the  witness  of  His  own  redemptive 
Ufe,  as  He  went  about  doing  good;  the  witness  of  God's  working 
through  Him  in  His  Healings  and  exorcisms;  and  the  witness  of 
the  Apostles  to  His  ministry  of  word  and  deed,  to  His  death  and 
resurrection,  vss.  40-43.  To  the  previous  witness  to  the  resurrec- 
tion, there  are  here  added  specific  references  to  the  Third  Day, 
the  appearances  to  the  disciples  and  the  eating  and  drinking  with 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  reference  in  our  record  to 
the  Old  Testament  witness  to  the  death  and  resurrection  of  the 
Messiah.  'All  the  prophets'  are  indeed  referred  to;  but  as  wit- 
nesses that  every  believer  in  the  Christ  shall  receive  remission  of 
sins.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  Christ's  death  and  resur- 
rection 'according  to  the  Scriptures,'  would  either  be  preached  in 
the  initial  presentation  of  the  Gospel  or  be  the  subject  of  instruc- 
tion before  the  baptismal  profession.  There  would,  however,  be 
no  occasion  to  emphasize  this  witness  of  prophecy  in  preaching 
to  the  Centurion,  who  would  not  experience  the  constant  diffi- 
culty of  the  Jew  in  recognizing  the  resurrection  of  a  Messiah  whom 
they  could  not  conceive  of  as  dying.  For  Cornelius,  the  infamy 
of  the  crucifixion  is  dispelled  by  the  witness  to  Jesus'  holy  Ufe 
and  work;  and  the  reality  of  the  resurrection  is  assured  by  the 
testimony  of  the  divinely  accredited  Apostle. 

Thus  to  the  Gentile  godfearer  the  emphasis  of  the  defense  and 
confirmation  of  the  Gospel  that  Jesus  is  Christ  and  Lord  is  on 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  69 

the  redemptive  facts  of  His  life,  death  and  resurrection.  The 
accompanying  appeal  and  call  to  accept  Him  as  the  Christ  rests 
on  the  Apostle's  assurance  of  a  divine  commission  from  the  risen 
Christ  to  preach  unto  the  people,  Xa6s;  and  the  assurance  was 
supported  in  this  case  by  the  divine  communication  to  Cornelius 
to  hear  Peter's  message,  vs.  22.  The  call  rests  further  on  the 
declaration  that  it  is  the  risen  Jesus  who  is  appointed  Judge  of 
the  living  and  the  dead;  and  that  forgiveness  in  that  judgment 
is  offered  through  His  name  to  every  one  that  beUeveth  in  Him, 
vss.  42  f . 

We  must  notice,  however,  that  there  is  no  mention  of  the  wit- 
ness of  the  ministry  of  the  exalted  Christ  in  the  personal  expe- 
rience of  Christians;  and  that  no  appeal  for  faith  is  based  on  the 
promise  of  receiving  the  Spirit.  If  in  the  ten-verse  summary  of 
the  discourse,  there  is  intentional  omission  by  the  Apostle  of 
reference  to  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  in  view  of  the  problem  of  the 
baptism  of  the  uncircumcised,  his  doubts  were  dissipated  by  their 
sudden  reception  of  the  Spirit,  which  was  manifested  in  the  gift 
of  tongues  with  grateful  adoration  of  God.  This  reception  of 
the  blessing  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism  was  to  him  and  to  the 
Church  of  Jerusalem,  11,  17  f.,  divine  warrant  for  their  reception 
of  that  sacrament  and  for  their  admission  into  the  fellowship  of 
the  Church.9 

•In  contrast  to  the  view  of  the  method  of  primitive  apologetic  here  pre- 
sented, may  be  compared  P.  Wernle,  Verhandlungen  d.  II,  Intemat.  Kon- 
gresses  f.  AUgemeine  ReligionsgescMchte,  Basel,  1904,  pp.  362-369.  He  there 
constructs  the  primitive  apologetic  in  three  stages.  As  its  basis,  the  argument 
from  miracle  and  prophecy,  as  in  the  Gospels;  next,  the  genial  development 
by  Paul,  in  whose  system  is  presented  the  proof  of  the  miracle  of  the  spiritual 
life  of  Christians  based  on  Christ  as  the  supreme  miracle,  and  this  in  apologetic 
polemic  against  any  other  rehgion;  while  finally  in  the  Prologue  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel  is  the  transition  to  the  Logos  Apologetic,  in  which  Christianity  is 
presented  as  the  unification  and  completion  of  whatever  truth  is  found  in  the 
Greek  popular  philosophy,  with  its  concepts  of  Logos  and  the  Law  of  Nature, 
although  Wernle  definitely  recognizes  that  in  the  body  of  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
the  two  earlier  forms  of  apologetic  are  still  emphasized.  Such  a  theoretical 
construction  disregards  the  facts  that  the  assumed  second,  Pauline,  stage  is 
historically  the  apologetic  by  which  converts  were  won  before  his  mission  and 
in  a  period  long  antedating  the  composition  of  the  Gospels;  that  the  Gospels, 
besides  their  witness  of  miracle  and  prophecy,  most  directly  present  the 
unique  character  and  life  of  Christ,  the  divine  witness  to  him  and  his  effectual 
offer  of  spiritual  renewal  and  salvation;  and  that  the  view  in  the  Johannine 


70    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

So  fixed  became  the  type  of  apology  to  the  Jews,  that  we  find 
Paul  near  the  end  of  the  second  decade  of  propaganda,  presenting 
the  Gospel  in  the  Galatian  synagogues  with  essentially  the  same 
features  and  in  the  same  general  method  as  that  of  the  Jerusalem 
Apostles.  And  this,  despite  the  differences  of  conditions  in  ad- 
dressing the  crowds  in  the  Temple  courts  and  in  preaching  to 
the  congregations  of  hellenistic  Jews  and  godfearers  in  the  syna- 
gogues of  the  Dispersion.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  synagogue 
of  Christians  in  Jerusalem,  cp.  Weizsacker,  Apos.  Age,  I,  46; 
and  there  are  no  references  to  apologetic  propaganda  there.  The 
speaking  and  disputing  of  Stephen  and  of  Paul  in  the  hellenistic 
synagogues  of  Jerusalem,  must,  in  view  of  the  prompt  charge  of 
blasphemy  and  of  the  ensuing  deadly  persecution,  have  been 
direct  polemic  against  Jewish  legalism. 

In  the  synagogues  of  the  Dispersion,  PauFs  preaching  had  to 
be  related  to  a  messianic  hope  which  it  may  be  conjectured  would 
not  be  of  the  Palestinian  zelotic  type,^°  nor  so  dominantly  affected 
by  Pharisaic  legalism  and  apocalyptic.  In  the  face  of  Graeco- 
Roman  culture,  the  Jew  would  be  intensely  conscious  of  his 
superior  divine  election,  and  would  the  more  dwell  upon  the  hope 
of  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  to  Israel.  At  Pisidian  Antioch, 
therefore,  in  natural  connection  with  the  synagogue  reading  of 
the  Law  and  Prophets,  Paul  prefaces  his  Gospel  message  with 
an  extended  exposition  of  the  messianic  hope  as  its  foundation, 
13,  17-22.  This  hope  rests  on  the  election  of  the  patriarchs  and 
on  the  divine  leading  of  the  elect  nation  from  the  days  of  Moses 
to  those  of  David,  to  whom  is  given  the  distinct  promise  of  a 
messianic  Son  of  David.  According  to  this  promise  God  has  now 
brought  to  Israel  a  Saviour,  Jesus. 

In  the  succeeding  outline  of  the  defense  of  this  claim,  vss. 
23-37,  and  from  the  later  summaries  of  it  in  the  Acts  and  Pauline 
Epistles,  we  can  mark  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  Apostle's 
method  of  presenting  the  Gospel  in  the  Jewish  synagogues.    He 

Prologue,  of  Christianity  as  the  full  certainty  of  revelation  completing  all 
previous  knowledge  of  divine  truth,  already  appears  in  Paul's  summary  of  his 
apologia  to  the  heathen,  Rom.  1,  18-2,  16,  in  the  christology  of  his  Epistles, 
as  well  as  in  his  address  at  Athens.  For  a  related  view  in  the  Synoptics,  see 
Forrest,  op.  cU.,  pp.  45  flf.  and  107. 

"  Cp.  K.  Lake,  The  SUwardahip  of  Faith,  p.  21.36.44. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  71 

constantly  emphasizes  that  both  the  facts  and  doctrines  of  his 
Gospel  are  according  to  the  Scriptures;  have  the  witness  of  the 
law  and  the  prophets;  are  the  Gospel  of  God  which  he  promised 
afore  through  His  prophets.  More  definitely,  in  view  of  Jewish 
ignorance  of  these  prophecies  although  they  are  read  every  Sab- 
bath, his  Praeparatio  Evangelica  is  an  exposition  of  the  real 
content  and  import  of  the  messianic  teachings  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. When  by  reasoning  in  the  synagogues,  by  opening  the 
meaning  of  the  Scriptures  and  by  bringing  forward  proofs  by 
comparison  of  passages,  17,  2  f.,  Paul  had  recalled  in  Antioch, 
Thessalonica,  Berea  and  Corinth,  the  real  Old  Testament  teaching 
concerning  Messiah,  his  kingdom  and  salvation,  he  could  proceed 
to  press  the  conclusion  that  'the  Christ  is  this  Jesus  whom  I 
proclaim  unto  you.'  Before  Agrippa,  26,  22,  he  describes  this 
preparatory  messianic  teaching  as  *  saying  nothing  but  what  the 
prophets  and  Moses  did  say  should  come:  how  that  the  Christ 
must  suffer,  and  how  that  he  first  by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead 
should  proclaim  light  both  to  the  people  and  to  the  Gentiles.* 
The  Christ's  death  and  resurrection  are  likewise  the  special 
messianic  prophecies  emphasized  in  Thessalonica,  17,  3,  at  Pisidian 
Antioch  13,  27.34  and  at  Corinth,  I  Cor.  15,  3.4.  Their  definite 
exposition  was  necessary  both  to  remove,  as  in  Acts  3,  13  ff.,  the 
Jewish  difficulty  in  accepting  a  suffering  messiah,  and  also  be- 
cause they  were  the  'primary  points,'  ev  xpcbrots,  in  his  Gospels 
of  messianic  salvation. 

In  the  structure  of  the  apologia  in  Act  13,  23  ff.,  thus  dominated 
by  the  witness  of  prophecy,  the  framework  of  the  earlier  Pales- 
tinian oral  Gospel  can  still  be  recognized.  The  defense  of  the  claim 
that  the  promise  of  a  messianic  Son  of  David  has  been  fulfilled  in 
Jesus,  begins  with  the  witness  of  the  Baptist  as  the  messenger 
prophesied  in  Malachi  3,  1,  preaching  the  baptism  of  repentance 
*  before  the  face  of  his  entrance';  ^^  and  testifying  to  his  approach- 
ing ministry  and  to  his  exalted  character.  At  this  point,  vs.  26, 
with  the  announcement  that  'the  word  of  this  salvation  has  been 
sent  forth,'  we  should  expect  as  in  Peter's  similar  introduction 
to  his  summary  of  Christ's  ministry,  10,  36,  a  reference  to  Christ's 

"  With  Acts  13,  24 :  irpd  irpoaonrox)  r?}s  eiabhov  avrov,   cp.  Mai.  3,  1, 
LXX:  686p  TTpo  Trpoa<j)irov  fwv;  and  vs.  2:  fjnipav  eiaSdov  avrov. 


72    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

own  witness  in  His  ministry  and  teaching.  Yet  in  our  record  it  is 
passed  over.  It  proceeds  at  once  to  the  witness  of  the  prophecies 
fulfilled  in  His  death,  and  to  details  concerning  Pilate,  the  tree, 
the  burial  in  a  tomb.  These  point  onward  to  a  full  account  in 
the  original  discourse  of  the  facts  of  the  resurrection  from  the 
tomb.  In  our  summary  report,  however,  it  is  simply  announced 
as  God's  act  and  witness  to  him;  and  the  witnesses  to  this  resur- 
rection are  the  Galileans,  cp.  I  Cor.  15,  5  if .,  to  whom  he  appeared 
for  many  days.  And  again  the  resurrection  and  exaltation  are 
*  according  to  the  Scriptures';  the  same  16th  Psalm  being  quoted 
as  earher  by  Peter,  and  as  bearing  the  same  witness  to  Jesus'  res- 
urrection without  'seeing  corruption.'  Here  the  apologia  of 
witness  ends.  Upon  it  is  based  the  succeeding  appeal,  vss.  38  f., 
to  accept  the  salvation  offered  by  Jesus  who  has  thus  been  made 
known  unto  them,  as  in  the  similar  conclusion  of  Peter'§  apologia, 
as  Lord  and  Christ. 

We  may  notice  that  Luke's  interest  in  reporting  the  prominence 
of  the  Old  Testament  witness  which  characterized  the  Apostle's 
synagogue  preaching,  has  occasioned  a  very  compressed  indica- 
tion of  the  use  of  some  of  the  other  constant  Hues  of  witness. 
Thus  the  divine  witness  is  generalized  in  the  statements  that 
God  has  brought  to  Israel  according  to  promise,  a  Saviour  Jesus, 
of  David's  seed,  vs.  23;  that  He  has  fulfilled  the  promise  made  unto 
the  fathers,  by  'raising  up'  Jesus  as  Messiah,  in  accordance  with 
Psahn  2;  ^^  and  that  God  has  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead, 
vss.  30.34.37.  A  compressed  reference  to  His  heavenly  exaltation 
and  to  the  promised  ministration  of  the  Spirit,  with  which  Peter's 
argmnent  closed,  2,  33  ff.,  has  been  found  by  exegetes,  including 
Meyer  and  B.  Weiss,  in  the  citation  in  vs.  34: 1  will  give  unto  you 
the  holy  and  sure  blessings  of  David,  as  in  R.  V.  They  regard 
the  words  as  a  text  for  an  argument,  developed  in  the  original 
discourse,  that  the  blessings  of  messianic  salvation  promised  to 
David  will  come  through  Jesus  as  the  mediator  of  salvation  in 
His  heavenly  life,  cp.  vs.  35.  The  witness  of  the  preachers '  spiritual 
experience  is  not  offered  in  the  synagogues  in  the  form  of  miracu- 
lous gifts.    We  can  only  conclude  indirectly  from  their  offer  of 

"So  Wendt,  with  citation  of  authorities,  who  is  followed  by  KnowliriR. 
Meyer,  B.  Weiss,  V.  Bartlett  are  among  those  who  refer  the  statement  to  the 
resurrection. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  73 

the  word  of  salvation  in  vs.  26,  and  of  forgiveness  and  justification 
in  vs.  38,  that  the  preachers  themselves  professed  the  reception 
of  the  Spirit. 

There  is  also,  however,  the  more  important  omission  of  refer- 
ence to  the  witness  of  Christ's  ministry,  and  hence  of  its  redemptive 
significance.  No  allusion  is  made  in  Luke's  report,  to  His  Ufe, 
character,  teaching  and  miracles,  from  the  witness  of  the  Baptist 
to  the  Passion.  This  omission,  coupled  with  the  character  of 
such  references  in  the  Pauline  Epistles,  is  made  the  basis  of  the- 
ories of  the  Apostle's  ignorance  of  Christ's  earthly  hfe  and  teach- 
ing, or  of  interest  solely  in  his  death  and.  heavenly  life.  These 
theories  necessarily  determine  the  formulation  of  Paul's  theologi- 
cal system;  and  as  has  appeared  in  the  recent  discussion  of  the 
topic,  whether  Jesus  or  Paul  was  the  founder  of  Apostolic  Christi- 
anity, they  affect  fundamentally  the  historical  criticism  of  the 
Gospels.  Our  interest,  however,  at  this  point  is  in  the  omission 
of  references  to  the  earthly  ministry  of  Jesus  in  the  report  of  the 
synagogue  sermon.  It  cannot  in  any  case  be  due  to  Paul's  ig- 
norance of  the  Gospel  tradition  of  Christ's  words  and  deeds,  or 
to  lack  of  interest  in  the  redemptive  significance  of  Christ's  whole 
human  experience  and  work.  This  result  has  been  reached  in 
recent  years  in  numerous  critical  investigations  of  the  subject. 
Among  these,  starting  with  Paret's  article,  Paulus  und  Jesus,  ^^ 
and  Keim's  estimate  of  Paul  as  a  source  for  the  life  of  Christ,  ^^ 
are  Paul  Feine's  work,  Jesus  Christus  u.  Paulus,  1902;  R.  J. 
Knowling,  Testimony  of  St.  Paul  to  Christ,  1905;  and  especially 
the  work  of  the  Danish  scholar,  Olaf  Moe,  Paulus  u.  die  evangelische 
Geschichte,  1912.^'^ 

Apart  from  the  details  of  the  discussion,  a  summary  of  which 
appears  in  Zahn's  Introd.,  §  48.4,  it  can  be  recalled  that  Paul 
before  his  conversion  would  have  ample  acquaintance  with  the 

"  Jahrbtxh  f.  deutsche  Theologie,  1858,  p.  1  f. 

^*  Geschichte  Jesu  von  Nazara,  1867,  I,  p.  35  f . 

^^  M.  Goguel,  L'Apdtre  Paul  et  Jesus-Christ,  1904,  discusses  Paul's  knowledge 
of  the  life  and  words  of  Jesus,  with  a  list  of  the  principal  earlier  discussions, 
on  p.  69.  He  concludes  that  Paul  probably  knows  fairly  well  the  Ufe  of  Christ. 
Yet  the  events  of  his  life,  if  Paul  knew  them,  have  for  him  no  religious  interest. 
For  the  object  of  his  faith  is  exclusively  the  glorified  Christ,  the  heavenly 
Being,  the  Spirit,  p.  97  f.  Knowling,  op.  cU.,  pp.  511-515,  gives  a  brief  account 
of  this  third  chapter  of  Goguel's  work. 


74    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Oral  Gospel  preached  in  Jerusalem  by  the  Christians  with  whom 
he  disputed  in  the  Hellenist  synagogues,  and  by  the  Christians 
whom  he  persecuted  for  this  preaching.  At  his  baptism  at  Da- 
mascus, there  was  deUvered  to  him  the  Gospel  which  he  preached, 
I  Cor.  15,  1,  whose  'primary  points'  were  Christ's  redemptive 
death  and  resurrection;  yet  this  Gospel  deUvered  to  him  and 
preached  by  him  must  have  been  the  complete  Oral  Gospel  which 
Ananias  held  in  conamon  with  the  Jerusalem  Apostles.  Fuller 
details  of  it  would  be  gained  by  him  in  intercourse  with  Christians 
at  Damascus;  with  Peter,  James  and  other  workers  at  Jerusalem, 
Gal.  1,  15;  with  Barnabas,  both  at  Jerusalem  and  at  Antioch  in 
the  year  of  their  teaching  of  the  Church  in  that  city.  If  his  years 
at  Tarsus  that  preceded  the  association  with  Barnabas,  included 
as  is  usually  understood  independent  missionary  work  in  CiUcia, 
he  must  have  been  equipped  to  furnish  fullest  information  con- 
cerning the  life,  ministry  and  teaching  of  one  whom  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile were  asked  to  accept  as  their  Messiah,  Saviour  and  Lord.^^ 
On  his  first  missionary  journey  Barnabas  and  Mark,  both  members 
of  the  primitive  Jerusalem  Church,  were  his  fellow-workers;  and 
again,  from  their  personal  conamunications  or  from  their  instruc- 
tion of  converts,  his  full  acquaintance  with  the  Gospel  tradition 
would  result.  On  the  next  journey,  Silas  of  the  Jerusalem  Church 
and  Luke  who  has  written  most  fully  of  Christ's  Hfe  and  ministry, 
are  his  companions.  Zahn  indeed  strangely  holds,  Skizzen^  84  f., 
that  Paul  when  by  himself  as  at  first  at  Corinth  knew  scarcely 
anything  else  to  preach  than  'the  Crucified  Jesus';  and  that  he 
needed  the  men  from  Jerusalem  to  supplement  and  confirm  his 
preaching  by  a  vividly  detailed  narrative  concerning  'the  Lord 
Jesus.'  This  however  is  to  confuse  the  propaganda  preaching 
which  must  necessarily  include  some  outUne  at  least  of  Christ's 
life  and  work,  with  the  later  instruction  of  converts  for  baptism. 
It  also  overlooks  the  fact  that  his  companions  were,  Hke  himself, 
not  original  disciples,  cp.  Acts  1,  21  ff.,  and  must  themselves  have 

'•  Zahn,  SHzzen  aus  dem  Leben  der  Alien  Kircfie,  1898,  p.  84:  Mission 
preaching  without  a  vivid  narration  of  the  deeds  and  words  of  Jesus,  would 
have  been  an  impossibility  (Unding).  We  must  entertain  a  very  singular 
view  of  Paul  as  missionary  and  especially  of  his  well-disposed  hearers,  if  we 
suppose  he  reached  his  results  by  means  of  a  'Gospel'  without  a  fullness  of 
historical  material. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  75 

learned  the  Gospel  tradition,  as  Paul  too  could  have  learned  it. 
It  is  therefore  incredible  that  upon  reaching  Corinth  alone,  he 
should  have  'known  scarcely  anything  else  to  preach  than  the 
great  fundamental  fact  of  Jesus  crucified.'  Further,  the  PauUne 
Epistles  reveal  an  acquaintance  by  the  Apostle  and  assume  a 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  his  converts,  both  of  Christ  as  the 
object  of  faith  on  the  basis  of  his  complete  self-manifestation, 
Feine,  pp.  45-56,  and  also  of  the  essential  topics  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing, Moe,  102-130;  Feine,  150-297.^7 

The  omission  of  reference  to  the  witness  of  Jesus'  life  and  teach- 
ing in  the  synagogue  address  was  therefore  not  due  to  Paul's 
ignorance  of  it  or  of  its  persuasive  power  and  redemptive  sig- 
nificance. Nor  could  it  be  due  to  its  irrelevance  to  his  apologetic 
argument  from  prophecy.  On  the  contrary  his  argument  postu- 
lated that  his  presentation  of  the  prophetic  conception  of  the 
Messiah  must  be  followed  by  or  interwoven  with  a  presentation  of 
the  life,  character,  teachings  and  work  of  Jesus,  as  its  fulfillment. 
Such  we  find  was  his  method  with  the  Jews  at  Rome,  Acts  28, 
23  if.;  the  witness  of  the  Old  Testament  was  correlated  with  the 
witness  of  the  life  of  Christ.  His  exposition  to  them  of  the  hope  of 
Israel  combined  his  testifying  the  Kingdom  of  God,'  naturally  as 
preached  by  Christ,  and  his  persuading  them  from  the  law  and 
prophets  concerning  Jesus,  which  would  involve  an  account  of  his 
life  and  ministry  as  the  fulfillment  of  messianic  prediction.  That 
he  was  equipped  to  give  this  account  appears  from  the  closing 
description  of  his  work  at  Rome  as  preaching  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  teaching  'the  things  concerning  Jesus,'  which  as  is  seen  in 
Luke  24,  19,  included  not  only  his  death  and  resurrection  but  his 
whole  ministry  of  word  and  deed.  Since  this  Gospel  preaching  in 
Rome  is  entitled,  'this  salvation  of  God, '  the  use  of  the  same  title 
in  13,  26,  '  the  word  of  this  salvation '  cp.  10,  36,  points  again  to 
Paul's  delivery  of  the  witness  of  Christ's  life  in  the  synagogue  at 
Antioch.  Luke's  omission  of  it  in  his  resume  of  the  synagogue 
sermon  is  amply  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  he  has  not  only 

"J.  Weiss,  Urchristm.,  p.  167:  'It  is  one  of  the  strangest  theological  errors, 
when  it  is  supposed  that  among  all  the  primitive  Christian  preachers,  Paul 
alone  dispensed  with  the  missionary  method  of  illustration  through  narratives 
from  the  life  of  Jesus,  on  the  view  that  he  knew  nothing  of  it  nor  wished  to 
know.'    See  also  Hamack,  Date  of  Acts,  p.  116. 


76    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

recorded  it  in  his  Gospel  but  has  also  already  summarized  it  in  his 
reports  of  propaganda  preaching  in  chapters  2,  3  and  10. 

Recognizing  therefore  that  the  PauHne  discourses  in  the  Jewish 
synagogues  included  this  witness  of  Jesus*  character  and  ministry 
and  correlated  it  with  the  other  essential  lines  of  testimony  to  his 
messiahship,  we  find  that  his  apologia  to  the  Jews  conformed  to 
the  type  which  we  have  already  found  indicated  in  the  discourses 
of  the  Palestinian  Apostles.  Like  them  it  consists  first  of  a  defense 
of  the  Gospel  in  the  form  of  manifold  witness  to  its  redemptive 
facts  and  truths;  and  next,  of  an  appeal,  solemn  exhortation,  a 
divine  call  to  accept  this  witness,  to  repent,  be  baptized  for  re- 
mission of  sins  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  enter  into  the 
fellowship  of  believers.  In  the  structure  of  all  the  reports  of  the 
Oral  Gospel  in  Acts,  this  division  is  evident.  At  the  conclusion  of 
the  witness  at  2,  36  follows  the  call  to  profession  of  faith  in  vss. 
38  ff . ;  the  witness  in  3,  12-18  leads  to  the  exhortation  to  conversion 
at  vss.  19  ff . ;  the  same  structure  of  the  evangelization  controls  the 
replies  of  Peter  to  the  Sanhedrin  in  4,  8-12;  5,  29-32;  his  witness 
to  Cornelius  ending  at  10,  42  introduces  the  prophetic  witness  of 
forgiveness  to  believers;  the  apologia  of  witness  in  13,  26-37  that 
the  messianic  promise  of  salvation  in  vss.  16-25  has  been  fulfilled 
in  Jesus,  Son  of  David,  is  followed  in  38-^1  by  the  offer  of  forgive- 
ness and  by  warning  of  rejection  of  this  witness  and  divine  call.^^ 

^8  This  division  is  also  indicated  in  Luke's  special  use  of  Sta/xaprupo/iat  as 
applied  to  the  witness.  It  expresses  not  simply  'bearing  personal  testimony' 
i.  e.,  napTvpelv,  but  'declaring  solemnly,'  and  in  this  connection,  the  whole 
body  of  witness  to  Jesus  as  the  Christ,  which  would  of  course  include  the 
testimony  of  the  preacher's  personal  experiences,  as  in  Acts  23,  11:  ws  5te- 
fxaprhpci)  rk  irepl  epx)v,  ovTdS  ae  Set  p.apTvpr\<J ai.  It  is  used  four  times  in 
Acts  in  connection  with  the  apologia  topics,  and  is  twice  joined  with  a  distinct 
expression,  which  in  2, 40  points  to  the  call  to  accept  the  salvation  presented  in 
the  witness,  and  very  probably  there  are  the  same  references  in  8,  25.  In  the 
rejwrt,  however,  of  Paul's  address  at  Miletus,  it  is  used,  20,  24,  somewhat 
more  generally  than  elsewhere  in  Luke,  as  solemn  attestation  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  grace  of  God;  and  in  a  distinctly  extended  reference,  vs.  20,  to  the  call 
to  repent  and  believe.  This  more  general  use  appears  also  in  I  Thess.  4,  6, 
where  it  is  concerned  with  initial  moral  teachings,  although  in  I  Thess.  2,  12; 
Eph.  4,  17,  the  simple  form  fxapTvpo^ai  is  used  in  this  connection,  as  also 
in  Acts  26,  22,  of  the  apologia  of  the  Gospel  in  the  report  of  Paul's  address. 
Knowling's  view  that  biafiaprbponat,  expresses  in  2,  40  a  solemn  'protest' 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  77 

For  the  apologia  of  witness  was  never  relied  upon  by  the  Apos- 
tolic preachers  as  sufficient  in  itself  to  win  their  hearers  to  faith. 
It  did  not  and  does  not  always  produce  conviction.  It  could  not 
effect  the  immediate  certainty  of  faith,  although  its  direct  aim  was 
to  awaken  a  faith  that  would  issue  in  a  divine  certitude  of  salvation. 
So  Paul  views  his  office,  Php.  1,  16:  I  am  appointed  for  the  apolo- 
gia of  the  Gospel;  and  in  vs.  7  the  apologia  is  to  lead  to  bebaiosis, 
the  direct  certitude  of  the  Gospel.  ^^  Hence  in  all  the  propaganda 
addresses  in  Acts,  there  is  a  concluding  exhortation,  a  call  to  hear 
on  the  basis  of  the  preceding  witness,  a  divine  invitation  to  accept 
the  salvation  effected  by  the  redemptive  life,  death  and  exaltation 
of  the  Christ  of  God.  It  is  a  call  not  merely  for  assent  to  the 
truths  preached  concerning  Christ,  but  for  a  response  of  personal 
faith  in  which  is  united  the  conviction  of  intellect  and  conscience 
with  the  devotion  of  the  affections  and  will.  Being  an  offer  of 
divine  salvation,  it  must  convince  its  hearers  of  their  need  of  it,  by 
awaking  a  consciousness  of  their  sins;  must  convince  them  of  a 
coming  divine  judgment  of  these  sins;  must  convince  them  also 
that  Jesus  is  the  messianic  Saviour  from  sin  and  that  He  is  the 
Lord  of  their  life.  And  it  must  assure  them  of  a  gift  of  spiritual 
power  with  which  to  realize  the  ideals  it  reveals  or  which  it  illumi- 
nates with  a  divine  Ught  and  glory.  ^ 

Such  a  faith  calling  for  absolute  devotion  and  sacrifice  must  rest 
on  the  conviction  that  this  call  to  accept  the  offer  of  salvation  is 
fully  authenticated  as  divine;  and  that  the  apologia  of  the  witness 

against  the  false  views  of  Peter's  hearers,  is  not  in  accord  with  their  receptive 
attitude  in  vs.  37.  Nor  can  Rackham  be  followed  in  regarding  it  'a  special 
word  for  the  apostolic  witness,'  since  Luke  has  recorded  only  addresses  by 
Apostles,  or  in  restricting  it,  e.  g.,  18,  5  to  Paul's  witness  based  on  his  conversion 
by  the  risen  Jesus,  for  which  fxapTvpetv  would  be  used  as  in  I  Cor.  15,  15. 

"  The  other  views  of  this  verse  are  considered,  pp.  124  ff. 

2°  Harnack,  Mission  and  Expansion,  I,  p.  382,  is  disposed  to  consider  that 
'it  was  Paul  who  first  threw  into  such  sharp  relief  the  significance  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  Redeemer  and  made  this  the  central  point  of  Christian  preaching.' 
Yet  he  recognizes  that  the  earlier  missionaries  also  proclaimed  that  Christ 
died  for  sins.  His  suggestion  that  in  their  contact  with  Jews  and  godfearers 
they  would  be  inclined  to  confine  themselves  to  preaching  the  imminence  of 
judgment  and  to  proving  from  the  Old  Testament  that  Jesus  was  to  return  as 
judge  and  Lord,  must  be  qualified  by  the  fact  that  this  witness  is  followed 
by  their  exhortations  cited  above,  to  accept  the  Gospel  of  salvation  in  Christ 
in  this  judgment,  as  is  shown  by  B.  Weiss,  N.  T.  Theology,  40.d. 


78    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

is  irrefragable.  And  moreover  this  full  assurance  of  faith  demands 
more  direct  illumination  of  mind,  kindling  of  heart  and  invigora- 
tion  of  will,  than  can  be  effected  by  any  human  ministry,  even  that 
of  inspired  Apostles.  It  is  therefore  to  the  divine  ministry  in  both 
preachers  and  hearers  that  the  New  Testament  ascribes  the  gene- 
sis of  the  faith  of  the  primitive  believers.  By  this  ministry  their 
eyes  were  opened;  they  were  turned  from  darkness  to  light;  were 
converted;  were  pricked  at  the  heart,  and  ask,  'what  shall  we  do 
then'  to  obtain  forgiveness  and  inheritance  among  those  who  are 
consecrated  by  faith  in  Jesus.  In  answer,  the  Apostles  sunmioned 
them  to  baptism  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  unto  remission  of  sins 
and  to  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  2,  38;  to  be  baptized  and 
wash  away  their  sins,  calling  on  the  name  of  the  Lord,  22,  16. 
But  in  such  a  spiritual  crisis,  and  such  a  sudden  and  complete 
revolution  of  intellectual,  moral  and  social  life  of  the  Jewish 
hearers  and  their  adherents,  there  was  clearly  needed  a  further 
definite  ministry  to  lead  them  to  the  direct  certitude  of  their 
salvation  by  faith,  jSeiSatcocts,  and  to  prepare  them  for  Christian 
life,  work  and  worship  after  their  baptism.  As  the  same  prepara- 
tory ministry  was  needed  as  well  by  Gentile  converts,  we  shall 
consider  it  at  the  conclusion  of  our  study  of  the  defense  of  the 
Gospel  to  the  Gentiles. 

2.  THE  APOLOGIA  AND  CALL  OF  THE  GOSPEL  TO  THE  GENTILES 

That  the  Gospel  should  be  preached  to  the  Gentiles,  must,  in 
view  of  the  theological  and  practical  difficulties  of  such  a  concep- 
tion to  Jewish  Apostles,  rest  ultimately  on  the  revealed  purpose 
and  command  of  Christ.  The  long  delay,  however,  in  imdertaking 
this  Gentile  mission,  is  itself  evidence  of  the  Apostles'  uncertainty 
as  to  the  means  of  reaUzing  their  Master's  ideal  of  a  universal 
Kingdom.  They  knew  as  every  Jew  knew,  of  the  universalism  of 
the  predicted  messianic  blessings.  ^^  They  knew  of  their  Lord's 
interest  in  the  other  sheep  outside  the  Jewish  fold,  which  He  must 
bring;  that  He,  when  lifted  up,  would  draw  all  men  unto  Him.  He 
had  assured  them  that  many  would  come  from  the  East  and  from 

*^  Bertholet,  Die  Stdlung  d.  Israeliten  u.  d.  Juden  zuden  Fremden,  p.  91  fif.; 
303  ff.  For  a  discussion  of  Christ's  attitude  to  the  Gentile  world  and  to  its 
evangelization,  see  K.  Axenfeld  in  MissionsvrisaenschafUiche  Studien  zum  Q. 
Wameck,  p.  70  B. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  79 

the  West  and  sit  down  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  Lk.  13,  29.  Most 
definitely,  in  all  the  written  Gospels  a  fixed  element  is  the  command 
of  the  risen  Christ  for  a  universal  mission: — Mt.  28,  19;  Lk.  24; 
27;  our  present  ending  of  Mk.  16,  15  f. ;  possibly  in  the  lost  ending, 
if  with  E.  J.  Goodspeed,  Amer.  Jnl.  Theology,  9,  p.  484  ff.,  it  was 
the  basis  of  the  Mtw.  parallel;  also  in  the  intermediate  ending  as 
printed  in  the  Nestle  editions  of  the  Greek  New  Testament; 
John  20,  21-23;  cp.  Acts  1,  8.  And  in  correspondence  with  this,  in 
the  condensed  summaries  of  the  Oral  Gospel,  the  Apostles  bear 
witness  to  the  universality  of  his  salvation: — Acts  2,  17.21.39; 
3,  25  f.;  10,  34.43;  13,  29;  cp.  15,  14  ff.;  Rom.  10,11-20.  Yet  for  a 
decade  the  mission  was  not  begun. 

Their  delay  in  fulfilling  the  commission  to  evangelize  the  Gentile 
world,  might  with  probability  be  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  they  had 
received  no  teaching  as  to  the  method  of  heathen  propaganda;  or 
as  to  the  definite  terms  and  mode  of  Gentile  admission  into  the 
life  and  worship  of  believers.  They  had  besides  the  example  of 
Christ  and  His  purpose  in  confining  His  earthly  ministry  to  Israel; 
and  also  as  introductory  to  the  command  to  preach  to  all  nations, 
the  initial  direction:  ^beginning  at  Jerusalem,'  Lk.  24,  47,  which 
is  recalled  in  the  frequent  formula  and  its  equivalents:  to  the  Jew 
first  and  also  to  the  Greeks; — cp.  Acts  3,  26;  13,  46;  26,  20;  Rom. 
1, 16;  2,  9  f. ;  Ephcs.  1, 12.  For  the  Gospel  must  be  preached  to  the 
Jew  first  to  confirm  the  promises  made  to  the  fathers,  Rom.  15,  8, 
that  thus  the  Gentiles  might  glorify  God  for  his  mercy  revealed  to 
and  through  Israel.  As  AcheHs  has  stated, ^^  "the  return  of  the 
Apostles  to  Jerusalem  was  the  first  great  missionary  act."  It 
was  necessary  to  consolidate  the  Gospel  with  the  Old  Testament 
religion  represented  in  Jerusalem  by  every  element  of  the  national 
life  and  thought  both  in  Palestine  and  in  the  Jewish  Dispersion; 
to  win  Israel  or  a  saving  remnant  of  Israel  as  a  foundation,  as  the 
steward  of  the  universal  Gospel,  as  a  witness  to  the  fulfillment  of 
the  Old  Testament  promises  of  salvation  in  Christ  Jesus;  and  to 
realize  concretely  in  Jewish  Christendom  the  ideal  sketched  both 
in  Ephesians  and  I  Peter  of  an  Israel  of  God,  an  elect  race,  a  royal 
priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  people  for  God's  own  possession,  a 
spiritual  house,  a  temple  of  God  into  which  the  Gentiles  also  are 
builded  together  for  an  habitation  of  God  in  the  Spirit. 

*'  Das  Christenthum  i.  d.  ersten  drei  Jahrhunderten,  I,  p.  2. 


80    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

In  the  providence  of  God,  the  historic  occasion  of  the  Gospel's 
advance  towards  the  Gentiles  was  the  persecution  and  death  of 
Stephen.  Hitherto  Stephen,  although  presumably  a  hellenist,  and 
certainly  imbued  with  a  distinct  conviction  of  the  universalism  of 
the  Gospel  and  of  the  freedom  from  legalism  which  it  brought,  had 
himself  confined  his  ministry  to  Jerusalem  alone.  They  that  were 
scattered  abroad  upon  his  death,  included  his  sympathizers;  and 
they  carried  with  them  his  convictions  and  his  free  daring  spirit. 
Philip  evangeUzed  Samaria;  others  of  them  preached,  though  to 
Jews  only,  in  Phoenicia,  Cyprus  and  the  metropolis  of  Antioch;  and 
at  length  the  Cyprians  and  Cyrenians  among  them  boldly  preached 
to  heathen  Greeks  at  Antioch,  not  waiting  for  the  authority  of  the 
Jerusalem  Church  and  its  Apostles.  ^^  As  no  details  are  recorded  of 
this  last  mission,  we  may  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  the  means 
by  which  the  genesis  of  faith  in  Christ  was  effected  by  Peter  and 
Paul;  with  special  interest  in  the  apologetic  character  of  their 
propaganda. 

The  foundation  upon  which  this  evangelization  was  laid  was  the 
Jewish  mission  among  the  Gentiles  during  the  two  preceding 
centuries.  This  had  succeeded  in  making  numbers  of  full  converts 
to  Judaism,  proselytes;  perhaps  more  largely  from  among  heathen 
women.  But  more  closely  related  to  the  Christian  mission  was 
Jewish  success  in  winning  a  class  of  '  Godfearers, '  throughout  the 
Empire.  These  while  holding  back  from  circumcision,  were  at- 
tached to  the  Synagogues  after  they  had  been  won  to  belief  in 
monotheism,  to  observance  of  the  Jewish  moral  code  and  their 
Sabbath,  and  to  acceptance  of  their  messianic  hope  and  their 
expectation  of  a  coming  judgment.^'* 

2'  In  support  of  this  general  view  of  the  tendencies  of  Stephen's  teaching 
and  its  influence  in  the  primitive  Church,  see  the  discussion  by  B.  W.  Bacon, 
Stephen's  Speech,  its  argument  and  doctrinal  relationship,  in  the  Yale  Bi- 
centennial Bibhcal  and  Semitic  Studies,  1901,  pp.  213  ff.,  and  cp.  his  Story  of 
Paid,  pp.  107  f.;  K.  Pahncke,  Stud.  u.  Krit.,  1912,  pp.  1  fiF.;  Harnack,  Miss, 
and  Expansion,  I,  pp.  49  f.  A  different  view  is  presented  by  A.  Grieve, 
H.  D.  B.,  IV,  614  f.,  and  by  McGiffert,  Apos.  Age,  pp.  83-89,  who  maintains 
that  'to  call  Stephen  a  forerunner  of  Paul  and  to  think  of  him  as  anticipating 
in  any  way  Paul's  treatment  of  the  Jewish  law  and  his  assertion  of  a  free 
Gentile  Christianity,  is  to  misunderstand  him.  He  neither  questioned  the 
continued  validity  of  the  Jewish  law  nor  suggested  in  any  way  the  call  of  the 
Gentiles.' 

"SchOrer,  H.  J.  P.,  II,  vol.  2,  p.  291  flf.,  especially  311  fiF.  and  references 


I 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  81 

Obviously  this  class  was  the  special  seed  plot  of  the  Christian 
Gentile  preaching;  and  its  conversion  on  a  large  scale  ^^  was  one  of 
the  principal  occasions  for  Jewish  hatred  of  the  Christian  mission 
and  of  their  incessant  attack  upon  it.  As  we  saw  in  the  previous 
chapter,  Luke  has  recorded  with  unusual  detail  the  means  of 
gaining  the  first  representative  of  this  class,  the  centurion  Corne- 
lius. It  was  substantially  the  method  of  apologia  to  the  Jews, 
although  with  obvious  differences  of  emphasis  on  the  several  lines 
of  witness.  We  may  here  note  further  that  his  conversion  is 
definitely  recorded  as  being  the  result  of  a  direct  ministry  to  him 
and  not  as  the  incidental  result  of  his  attendance  at  the  synagogue 
preaching  of  the  Christian  missionaries.  His  conversion  being  due 
to  a  distinct  revelation  of  the  divine  will,  would  serve  later  as  an 
incentive  to  propaganda  among  this  class  of  Godfearers  when  it 
was  met  in  the  synagogues  of  the  Dispersion.  And  specially  his 
admission  to  the  Church  without  being  circumcised,  would  in- 
evitably suggest  and  vindicate  the  extension  of  the  Gospel  mission 
to  Gentiles  in  general;  although  the  method  of  preaching  the  Gospel 
to  them  without  their  previous  acquaintance  and  sympathy  with 
the  religion  and  hope  of  Israel,  which  the  Godfearers  possessed, 
was  not  yet  indicated. 

The  first  direct  Gentile  propaganda  was  made  by  the  Cypriote 
and  Cyrenian  refugees  from  the  Jerusalem  persecution.  Acts  11, 
20.  In  contrast  to  those  who  in  the  previous  verse  spoke  the 
word  to  none  save  only  the  Jews,  these  men  in  Antioch  spoke 
unto  the  Greeks  also,  "'EXKrjvas,  preaching  the  Lord  Jesus. 
Knowling  follows  the  reading  'EWrjvLaTas;^^  and  this  on  the 
ground  'that  as  far  as  Antioch  Jews  only  had  been  addressed. 
But  on  the  contrary,  Stephen  and  Paul  had  addressed  Hellenists 
in  their  synagogues  at  Jerusalem,  Acts,  6,  8;  9,  29;  and  they  al- 
ready formed  part  of  the  Jerusalem  Church,  6,  1.  The  reading 
*  Greeks'  is  moreover  supported  not  only  by  the  contrast  with  the 

on  pp.  219  and  304;  Von  Dobschiitz  in  Hauck's  P.  R.  E.,  Bd.  16,  p.  120  ff.; 
Bertholet,  op.  ciL,  §  7,  p.  328  ff.;  F.  C.  Porter,  H.  D.  B.,  IV,  p.  134  f.;  Hamack, 
Miss,  and  Expans.  1,  p.  10  f.;  Lake,  Earlier  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  p.  37  f. 

"P.  Wendland,  HeUen.-Rom.  Kultur,  120,  holds  that  Havet  (Le  Christv- 
anisme,  IV,  102)  is  not  justified  in  the  exaggerated  statement  that  in  Paul's 
lifetime  no  one  that  was  actually  a  heathen,  i.  e.,  who  did  not  already  know 
Judaism  and  its  Bible,  became  a  Christian. 

*•  See  further  reference  to  the  reading,  chap,  vii,  n.  3. 


82    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Jews,  11,  19,  but  also  by  the  scope  of  Luke's  comment  in  the 
succeeding  verses,  21-26.  They  serve  to  justify  this  advance  of 
the  Gospel  to  a  distinct  new  class.  It  had  signal  divine  blessing, 
vs.  21,  it  attracted,  like  the  Hellenist  Philip's  bold  mission  to 
Samaria,^'  the  attention  of  the  Church  in  Jerusalem.  Barnabas 
is  sent  to  Antioch  not  as  a  mere  assistant  of  an  already  successful 
work,  vs.  21,  but  to  inquire  into  it;  and  he  gives  his  joyful  approval 
of  it  as  a  manifestation  of  the  grace  of  God.  His  long  journey  to 
Tarsus  to  seek  Paul  and  engage  him  in  this  new  work  might  be 
best  explained  as  based  on  his  knowledge,  9,  27,  of  Christ^s  words 
at  Paul's  conversion,  which  as  Luke  thrice  records  contained  a 
conmiission  to  preach  to  the  Gentiles:  9,  15;  22,  21;  26,  17.  The 
whole  section  thus  points  to  a  work  distinctly  in  advance  of  the 
mission  to  Hebrews,  and  Hellenists,  Samaritans  and  Godfearers, 
which  had  already  the  full  approval  of  the  Church  of  Jerusalem. 
Yet  of  the  method  of  leading  these  Greeks  at  Antioch  to  faith, 
we  have  no  information.  We  must  therefore  attempt  to  con- 
struct the  method  of  Gentile  evangelization  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment references  to  the  later  missionary  work  of  the  Apostle  to 
the  Gentiles. 

When  Paul  turned  from  the  synagogue  propaganda  among 
the  Jews  to  preach  to  Gentiles,  he  not  only  incm*red  the  unre- 
lenting hatred  of  the  unbelieving  Jews  for  his  teaching  and  for 
his  success  in  winning  from  them  the  Godfearers,  but  he  had  to 
face  the  problems  of  approach  to  the  heathen.  There  was  the 
initial  problem  of  opposition  to  a  Gospel  preached  by  Jews,  and 
which  seemed  identical  with  or  essentially  related  to  the  Jewish 
religion.  In  Philippi  Paul  and  Silas  are  attacked,  because  re- 
garded as  Jewish  preachers,  16,  20,  by  a  heathen  populace  obsessed 
with  the  widespread  popular  charges  against  the  Jewish  beliefs 
and  abhorrent  practices.  According  to  P.  Wendland,  p.  109,  this 
antisemitism  dominated  the  literature  concerning  Judaism  and 
the  popular  feeling  from  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  b.  c. 
'The  worship  of  God  without  images,  the  godlessness  revealing 
itself  in  the  contempt  for  alien  religions,  the  social  isolation  pro- 
moted by  singular  observances,  in  which  is  betrayed  the  hatred 
of  mankind  and  the  haughty  pride  which  is  all  the  more  without 
warrant,  since  the  Jews  have  contributed  nothing  to  culture; 
"  Lake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  19-23. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  83 

these  perhaps  are  the  essential  denunciations  with  which  the  hate 
of  the  antisenxitists  upbraid  them;  not  to  speak  of  the  malicious 
fictions  which  this  hate  has  first  created.'  ^^  These  slanders  are 
most  fully  recorded  and  refuted  in  Josephus,  Contra  Apionem.^ 

This  initial  opposition  of  the  heathen,  some  features  of  which 
had  still  to  be  dealt  with  by  the'Christian  apologists  of  the  second 
and  third  centuries,  would  be  partly  met  by  the  association  of 
Paul  with  the  converted  Godfearers.  The  unbelieving  heathen 
could  see  in  these  converts.  Gentiles  who  had  accepted  a  form 
of  Jewish  religion  which  was  free  from  circumcision,  mosaic  legal- 
ism and  many  characteristic  Jewish  observances;  and  especially 
was  not  identified  with  the  synagogue.  But  there  still  remained 
the  difficulty  of  bringing  the  heathen  to  accept  as  preparatory 
to  their  acceptance  of  the  Gospel,  the  fundamental  truths  which 
had  already  won  the  godfearers  for  the  synagogue.  The  need  of 
this  preparation  is  recognized  in  the  statement  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  11,  6:  Without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  God; 
which  is  the  Septuagint  translation  and  explanation  of  the  He- 
brew phrase  Ho  walk  with  God,'  that  is  used  of  the  moral  life  of 
Enoch.  For  he  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  He  is,  and 
that  He  is  a  re  warder  of  them  that  seek  Him.  So  too  the  Gentile 
Clement  of  Rome  recalls  in  chaps.  35,  36,  which  we  may  thus 
summarize  on  the  basis  of  Lightfoot's  translation:  this  is  the  Way, 
656s,  in  which  we  found  our  salvation,  even  Jesus  Christ;  when 
our  intellect  became  established  by  means  of  faith  towards  God; 
when  we  sought  out  those  things  which  are  well  pleasing  and 
acceptable  to  Him,  and  followed  the  way  of  truth,  casting  off 
from  ourselves  all  unrighteousness  and  iniquity,  and  the  rest  of 
the  vice  Ust;  and  when  there  fell  under  our  apprehension,  the 
things  preparing  for  them  that  patiently  await  Him:  life  in  im- 
mortaUty,  splendor  in  righteousness,  truth  in  boldness,  faith  in 
confidence,  temperance  in  sanctification. 

There  was  then  but  one  way  for  Paul  to  effect  this  praeparatio 

^  Schiirer,  H.  J.  P.,  II,  31. v,  furnishes  fuller  details  and  references.  The 
texts  have  been  collected  by  Reinach,  Textes  d'auteurs  grecs  et  romains  rel- 
atifs  au  judaisme,   1895. 

29  The  contents  are  outlined  in  Schiirer,  II,  33.  vi.  1;  Geffcken,  Zwei  grie- 
chische  Apologeten,  xxix  ff.;  M.  Friedlander,  Ges.  d.  Jud.  Apologetik,  346  fif. 
J.  Bergmann,  Jild.  Apologetik  im  N.  T.  Zeitalter,  passim;  Niese,  Histor. 
Zeitschnft,  N.  F.  40,  p.  229  flf. 


84    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

evangelical  the  method  of  the  Jewish  propaganda  to  the  heathen. '° 
It  is  to  be  found  throughout  the  remains  of  Jewish  hellenistic 
literature,  whose  home  is  Alexandria,  and  which  is  dominated  by 
apologetic  tendency,  Friedlander,  p.  22  f.  It  began  with  vindica- 
tion of  the  Jewish  religion  against  the  contempt  and  misunder- 
standing that  arose  when  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion  spread 
abroad  through  the  communities  of  the  North  African  and  iEgean 
coasts.  As  in  Christian  apologetic  Christ  is  the  first  apologist, 
so  in  Friedlander's  view,  p.  27,  'in  the  Septuagint  was  the  apologist 
/car'  i^oxnv  to  arise  for  Judaism. ^^  That  translation,  while  it  met 
the  needs  of  Dispersion  Jews  unfamiliar  with  Hebrew,  had  ac- 
cording to  Philo  ^^  this  additional  result:  'that  the  holiness  of 
our  laws  became  an  object  of  admiration  not  only  for  the  Jews, 
but  also  for  all  other  nations.  Originally  written  in  Chaldaic 
language,  these  laws  were  long  inaccessible  to  the  rest  of  men. 
Gradually  through  the  practice  and  observance  of  them  by  their 
professors,  their  fame  spread  through  the  earth.  For  since  even 
what  is  noble  is  temporarily  dimmed  by  envy,  and  yet  at  the 
right  time  the  excellence  of  its  nature  is  flashed  forth,  so  certain 
men  devoted  themselves  to  a  translation  of  our  laws.'  Thus,  as 
Friedlander  comments,  it  was  made  when  Mosaism  was  for  a 
period  darkened  by  the  envy  of  heathen  attack  at  its  rapid  prog- 
ress. Therefore  its  dissemination  in  a  Greek  translation  would 
illuminate  the  heathen  as  to  its  true  character;  would  parry  their 
attack  and  render  them  receptive  for  the  Jewish  faith. 

The  letter  of  Pseudo-Aristeas  is  among  the  oldest  monuments 
of  the  Alexandrian  Jewish  spirit,  if  Schiirer's  dating  of  it  as  not 
later  than  about  200  b.  c.  is  accepted. ^^    It  contains  the  legend 

»"  Schiirer,  H.  J.  P.,  II,  vol.  3,  p.  248  ff.;  Harnack,  Mission  and  Expansion 
of  Christianity,  I,  p.  9  fif.;  M.  Friedlander,  op.  cit.;  K.  Axenfeld,  Die  judische 
Propaganda  als  Vorlauferin  und  Wegbereiterin  der  urchristlichen  Mission, 
pp.  1-80  of  Missionsvnssenschaftliche  Studien,  zum  G.  Warneck,  1904.  Sup- 
plementary to  the  histories  of  Hellenistic  Jewish  apologetic,  Bergmann,  op. 
cit.,  presents  the  line  of  defense  by  Palestinian  teachers  against  the  attacks 
by  heathen,  Jewish  freethinkers,  Christians  and  gnostics,  extending  through 
the  first  four  Christian  centuries. 

"  Axenfeld  quotes  Grtttz,  Gesch.  d.  Jud.  3,  336:  The  Septuagint  is  'the  first 
Apostle  that  goes  forth  into  all  the  world  and  teaches  all  nations.' 

"  Vita  Mosis,  II,  p.  138,  quoted  by  Friedlander. 

"  Bertholet  dates  it  in  the  first  half  of  the  first  century,  b.  c,  Fiebig,  96 

B.  C. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  85 

of  the  translation  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  uses  it  as  a  framework 
for  a  panegyric  on  the  Mosaic  laws  and  institutions,  in  rebuttal 
of  heathen  attacks,  and  contrasts  them  with  heathen  folly  and 
idolatry.^"^  The  Alexandrian  Jew  Aristobulus,  c.  175  b.  c,  in  his 
Exposition  of  the  Mosaic  laws,  next  presented  a  glorification  of 
them;  and  again  sought  thus  to  win  respect  and  admiration  for 
the  Jewish  religion.  Not  content  to  assert  the  essential  agree- 
ment of  Moses  and  the  Greek  philosophy,  he  claimed  that  the 
philosophers  and  poets  of  Greece  had  borrowed  much  from  Moses. 

About  the  middle  of  the  second  century  b.  c,  Alexandrian 
propaganda  appropriated  to  its  use  the  form  of  the  Sibylline 
Oracles.  The  oldest  Jewish  portions  of  the  present  collection  of 
them  is  contained  in  Book  Third.  In  it  we  find,  along  with  the 
familiar  apologetic  features  in  vss.  8-45,  a  direct  attack  on  the 
idolatry  and  immorality  of  the  heathen  world,  and  in  vss.  46-62 
the  warning  of  judgment.  The  date  of  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon 
is  unsettled,  though  the  period  100-50  b.  c.  is  frequently  as- 
signed. It  is  likewise  a  defense  to  the  heathen  of  the  supreme 
revelation  of  divine  wisdom  in  the  religion  of  Moses;  and  it  too 
advances  in  chaps.  13-15  to  an  attack  upon  heathen  polytheism, 
idolatry  and  immorality;  renewing  the  polemic  of  Isaiah  44,  12  ff. 
and  Jer.  10,  2  ff.,  cp.  Ps.  115,  3  ff.,  with  appropriation,  according 
to  Geffcken,  p.  xxiii,  of  the  forms  of  Greek  philosophic  criticism 
of  polytheism.  ^^ 

This  combined  apology  and  polemic  was  the  basis  of  the  success- 
ful hellenistic  Jewish  propaganda  from  the  synagogues  scattered 
throughout  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  two  centuries  preceding 
Paul's Inission.  Briefly  stated,  the  method  of  winning  over  op- 
ponents to  Israel's  faith  followed  a  fixed  general  type:  a  type  so 
simple,  logical,  popular  and  effective,  that  it  could  impress  the 

'*  The  text  has  been  edited  in  1900  both  by  Wendland,  who  also  gives  a 
translation  in  Kautzsch,  Apokryphen  u.  Pseudepigraphen,  II,  p.  Iff.;  and  by 
Thackeray  in  an  appendix  to  Swete's  Introd.  to  the  0.  T.  in  Greek,  with  a 
translation  in  the  Jew.  Quart.  Rev.  15.,  p.  337  ff.  A  translation  with  intro- 
duction and  commentary  is  also  given  by  H.  T.  Andrews  in  R.  H.  Charles, 
Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha  of  the  0.  T.,  II,  pp.  94-122. 

^^  Siegfried,  Hastings  B.  D.,  iv,  928,  however,  regards  the  author  as  moved 
by  a  definite  polemical  aim  in  opposition  to  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  in  which 
he  finds  opinions  partly  Stoic,  partly  Epicurean,  exactly  corresponding  to 
those  opposed  in  Wisdom,  1,  10—2,  20. 


86    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

mind  of  the  common  man,  awaken  his  conscience,  and  stir  up  his 
soul  with  fear  and  with  longing  and  hope  for  salvation.  Since 
this  Jewish  propaganda  sought  to  win  the  whole  world  to  the  per- 
fect wisdom  and  to  the  supreme  blessings  of  Israel,  it  was  careful 
to  put  no  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  those  whom  it  sought 
to  teach  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  cp.  Friedlander,  op.  dt.,  p.  216  f. 
It  seemed  good  to  lay  upon  the  heathen  approaching  Judaism, 
no  more  than  these  three  necessary  things:  first,  beUef  in  Jewish 
monotheism,  which  involved  renunciation  of  idolatry  and  all 
its  associations;  second,  a  moral  walk  in  piety  towards  God,  in 
fulfillment  of  brotherly  duty  to  man,  and  in  personal  uprightness 
and  purity,  in  accordance  with  the  famiUar  passage  in  Micah 
6,  8,  concerning  'what  is  good':  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of 
thee  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  kindness,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God;  third,  the  belief  in  a  world  judgment  when  God 
will  requite  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds,  and  will  admit 
the  righteous  into  the  messianic  kingdom  promised  in  Israel's 
Scriptures. 

The  system  of  Jewish  mission  teaching  is  based  as  regards  its 
monotheism  upon  the  familiar  Old  Testament  references  to  the 
vanity  of  heathen  idolatry;  and  it  also  appeals  to  and  appropriates 
the  polemic  in  the  later  Greek  popular  philosophy  against  poly- 
theism.^ Its  ethical  teaching  rests  on  the  precepts  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  on  various  forms  of  moral  catechetical  instruction 
by  Palestinian  Jewish  teachers,  such  as  Jewish  forms  of  the  Two 
Ways;  and  again,  it  is  supported  and  enforced  by  appeal  to  the 
Greek  unwritten  law.  Its  remaining  eschatological  feature  is 
founded  alone  on  the  Jewish  messianic  hope  of  the  prophets  and 
apocalyptists;  and  it  was  the  means  employed  to  rouse  the  dor- 
mant sense  of  sin  and  to  stimulate  the  heathen  world's  awaking 
consciousness  of  a  need  of  redemption. 

This  constant  type  can  be  traced  in  all  the  remains  of  Alexan- 
drian propaganda  literature  from  the  Jewish  sections  of  the 
Sibyllines  on  through  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  to  Phokylides  and 
Philo,  and  with  equal  definiteness  in  the  writings  of  the  Palestinian 
Josephus  in  the  first  Christian  century.     Reuss's  summary  de- 

••See  the  summary  in  P.  Wendland,  Die  Urchristlichen  lAteraturforrrwn, 
p.  325  f.,  and  the  references  and  fuller  discussion  in  Gefifcken's  commentary, 
cited  earlier,  on  the  Apologies  of  Aristides  and  Athenagoras. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  87 

scription  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles,^^  which  is  practically  adopted 
by  Schlirer,  H.  J.  P.,  §  33,  vii,  1,  characterizes  the  dominant 
features  of  the  whole  Hellenistic  propaganda:  Hhe  aim  and  task 
of  the  SibylKnes  was  the  advocacy  of  monotheism  and  criticism 
of  idolatry;  an  energetic  denunciation  of  the  corruption  of  the 
pagan  world;  and  finally  the  proclamation  of  the  last  Judgment; 
and  in  connection  with  all  this,  the  glorification  of  Israel.'  This 
moreover  has  tended  to  fix  the  type  and  range  of  Christian  apologia 
to  the  heathen  in  the  second  century  and  later.  It  is  addressed 
to  them  as  praeparatio  evangeUca  leading  to  the  definite  defense 
of  the  Gospel  in  the  demonstratio  evangeUca. 

We  are  therefore  prepared  to  find  that  it  has  been  adopted  by 
Paul,  as  may  be  concluded  from  the  summary  of  Christian  prop- 
aganda to  the  heathen,  which  he  has  given  in  the  first  two  chapters 
of  Romans.  It  is  based  like  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  with  which 
the  Apostle  is  famiUar,^^  on  the  universal  revelation  of  God's  ex- 
istence, eternal  power  and  wisdom  in  his  creation,  which  calls 
for  the  true  worship  of  adoration  of  his  manifested  perfection, 
and  for  the  grateful  worship  of  recognition  of  him  as  the  true 
source  of  all  blessings,  1,  18-21.  Upon  this  section  concerning 
monotheism  follows,  as  in  Jewish  apologetic,  his  denunciation 
of  the  heathen  sin  of  idolatry;  of  the  resulting  rejection  of  duty 
to  God  and  man;  and  of  their  progressing  moral  degeneracy,  1, 
22-32.  For  such  sins  listed  in  this  section  concerning  moraUty, 
there  will  come  a  day  of  wrath  and  righteous  judgment  upon 
every  soul  that  worketh  evil,  in  spite  of  the  universal  subjective 
revelation  of  duty  written  in  the  heart;  while  on  that  day  God 
will  "give  life  eternal  to  those  who  through  patience  seek  the 
supreme  moral  ideals  of  glory,  honor  and  immortality,  2,  1-16.^^ 

At  this  point  we  are  at  the  parting  of  the  ways  between  the 

^  Quoted  by  Friedlander  from  Nouo.  Revue  de  ThSologie,  vii,  1861,  p.  198. 

'^  Sanday-Headlam,  Romans,  52:  "At  some  time  in  his  life  St.  Paul  must 
have  bestowed  upon  the  Book  of  Wisdom  a  considerable  amount  of  study." 
The  fullest  treatment  is  by  E.  Grafe,  Das  VerhdUniss  d.  paidin.  Schriften 
zur  Sap.  Solomonis,  in  TheoL  Abhandlungen  f .  C.  von  WeizsScker,  253. 

'^  This  threefold  structure,  the  doctrine  of  God,  the  teaching  of  the  Two 
Ways,  the  eschatological  teaching,  has  already  been  pointed  out  by  A.  Seeberg, 
LHdache  d.  Jud.  u.  d.  Urchristenheit,  p.  43.  He  compares,  in  addition  to  par- 
allels in  Christian  Uterature,  a  similar  structure  in  Orac.  Sibyll,  3,  8-35;  36-45; 
46  ff. 


88    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Jewish  and  Christian  mission  to  the  Gentiles.  Acceptance  of 
this  threefold  teaching  was  naturally  followed  by  the  demand, 
what  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  in  the  coming  judgment  by  the  One 
God,  on  my  sin  and  immoraUty?  The  Diaspora  Jews  who  were 
not  Pharisaic,  and  who  themselves  were  not  able  to  keep  the  whole 
ceremonial  law,  owing  to  their  absence  from  the  Temple  and  its 
sacrifices,  welcomed  the  Godfearers  to  their  synagogues,  in  the 
hope  that  they  would  later  follow  on  to  full  profession  by  cir- 
cumcision and  proselyte  baptism;  and  meanwhile  assuring  them 
of  the  divine  favor,  because  of  their  devotion  to  Israel's  God, 
Way  of  life  and  worship,  and  to  Israel's  hope.  More  definitely, 
Peter  concluded  from  the  vision  to  the  uncircumcised  Cornelius, 
that  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness is  acceptable  to  Him,  Acts  10,  35.  The  full  Jewish  answer 
and  indeed  the  answer  of  the  Pharisaic  converts  to  Christianity, 
was:  it  is  necessary  to  be  circumcised  and  keep  the  Law  of  Moses; 
and  thus  be  incorporated  into  Israel  and  inherit  its  covenant 
promises  of  salvation.  But  in  direct  opposition  to  this  answer, 
Paul  who  assumes,  Rom.  3,  21  ff.,  that  the  heathen  once  con- 
vinced of  their  sins,  1,  18-2,  16,  will  reaHze  their  need  of  salva- 
tion, offers  it  to  them  in  the  Gospel  of  God's  justification  of  them 
by  His  grace;  by  the  redemption  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  3,  24  ff. 
Such  was  the  Gospel  which  had  won  the  godfearers  and  full 
proselytes  in,  Pisidian  Antioch,  Acts  13,  38.  Yet  when  on  the 
next  Sabbath  he  turned  to  the  Gentiles,  he  had  himself  to  take 
up  the  task  of  preparing  them  for  the  Gospel  of  salvation,  by  the 
method  of  the  Jewish  missionaries  to  the  heathen. 

Irenaeus,  Contra  Haer,  IV,  24,  sees  in  the  accompHshment  of 
this  task  the  ground  of  Paul's  assertion  that  he  labored  more 
abundantly  than  the  Apostles  to  the  Jews;  and  points  to  the 
fact  that  to  secure  a  basis  for  his  Christian  doctrine,  Paul  had  to 
instruct  the  Gentiles  ignorant  of  the  Scriptures,  in  a  certain 
foreign  erudition:  to  depart  from  superstition  of  idols  and  to 
worship  one  God  the  Creator,  whose  Son  was  made  a  man  among 
men,  died,  conquered  the  enemy  of  the  man  and  reformed  the 
human  race;  had  to  teach  them  that  adultery,  fornication,  theft, 
fraud  and  whatsoever  things  were  done  to  our  neighbor's  prejudice 
were  evil  and  detested  by  God.  In  addition,  they  were  destructive 
to  those  who  engaged  in  them;  while  immortality,  release  from 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  89 

suffering  and  life  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  offered  to  those 
who  beUeve  in  Christ.  The  three  subjects  of  the  Diaspora  mis- 
sion preaching,  which  appear  in  this  arrangement  of  the  contents 
of  Irenaeus'  chapter,  would  be  all  the  more  famiUar  to  Paul  if 
before  his  conversion  he  had  himself  engaged  in  such  Jewish  mis- 
sion work,  as  Ramsay,  Axenfeld,  p.  44,  and  Weinel,  St,  Paulj  154, 
have  suggested:  If  so,  it  must  have  been  in  the  Pharisaic  method 
condemned  by  Christ  in  Mtw.  23,  15:  woe  unto  you  scribes, 
Pharisees,  hypocrites!  For  ye  compass  sea  and  land  to  make 
one  proselyte,  and  when  he  is  become  so,  ye  make  him  twofold 
more  the  child  of  hell  than  yourselves.  The  difficulty  in  the  ex- 
position of  this  statement  is  not  merely  the  contrast  between 
Hhe  one  proselyte'  and  the  great  harvest  of  Jewish  conversions 
of  which  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors  complain;  and  not  alone 
in  the  probable  fact  that  the  Pharisaic  party  was  averse  to  the 
propaganda  of  the  Hellenistic  Jews;  but  chiefly  in  Christ's  ap- 
parent condemnation  of  the  zeal  of  the  Jews  in  converting  heathen 
from  their  idolatry  and  immoraUty,  and  thus  preparing  for  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel  throughout  the  Empire  in  the  first  Christian 
generation/®  But  these  difficulties  disappear  as  we  recognize 
that  he  is  not  referring  to  Jewish  ministry  in  the  Gentile  world, 
cp.  Tobit's  Prayer,  13,  3.4.6,  but  to  the  mission  of  Palestinian 
Pharisees  in  the  Dispersion  synagogues  Ho  bring  half-judaized 
Gentiles  individually  to  complete  submission  to  the  whole  Law 
and  especially  to  acceptance  of  circumcision.'  ^^ 

Turning  now  to  the  history  in  Acts  of  Paul  the  Christian  Apostle 
to  the  heathen,  we  find  there  few  detailed  records  of  his  method 
of  converting  them.  Church  after  Church  is  founded  among  the 
Gentiles,  but  in  no  case  have  we  an  account  of  the  preaching 
which  won  them  to  belief.  Luke's  readers,  who  were  the  con- 
verts in  those  churches,  already  knew  'what  manner  of  entering 
in  the  Apostle  had  unto  them  and  how  they  had  turned  from  idols 
to  serve  a  Uving  and  true  God,  and  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  heaven 

*"  Axenfeld,  p.  42:  'Secular  historians,  e.  g.  Mommsen  and  Ed.  Meyer  have 
employed  this  word  of  the  Lord  as  reliable  historical  report;  Christian  the- 
ologians have  raised  doubts  concerning  it  or  have  weakened  it;  Jewish  scholars 
have  from  ancient  times  vehemently  contested  it.' 

*^  Axenfeld,  p.  43,  who  illustrates  the  two  methods  of  Jewish  propaganda 
from  the  narrative  of  Prince  Izates'  conversion  in  Josephus,  Antt.  xx,  2. 


90    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

whom  He  raised  from  the  dead,  even  Jesus  who  deUvereth  us  from 
the  wrath  to  come.'  I  Thess.  1,  9  f.  To  them  Luke  in  Acts  has 
given  a  summary  of  the  Oral  Gospel  to  the  Jews,  with  its  lines 
of  witness  that  Jesus  is  Christ  and  Lord;  but  in  only  three  pas- 
sages has  he  outlined  the  preparatory  preaching  upon  which  this 
defense  and  appeal  of  the  Gospel  was  based:  in  the  addresses  at 
Lystra  and  Athens,  and  in  the  reference  to  Paul's  conference  with 
Felix;  and  in  all  three  cases  the  preaching  was  unsuccessful.  The 
occasion  of  its  record  in  Lystra  seems  to  have  been  incidental 
to  his  narrative  of  the  singular  experience  of  Paul  being  first 
mistaken  to  be  a  God,  and  then  stoned;  in  Caesarea,  incidental 
to  the  narrative  of  his  relations  with  the  procurator;  but  in  the 
address  at  Athens,  he  seems  to  have  selected  the  striking  sur- 
roundings of  the  intellectual  and  artistic  capital  of  the  Gentile 
world  as  the  fitting  scene  to  record  the  outlines  of  the  Apostle's 
general  method  of  approach  to  the  thought  and  moral  life  of 
heathenism.  In  addition,  however,  to  these  three  accounts  in 
Acts,  the  Pauline  epistles  abound  in  references  to  the  heathens' 
acceptance  of  the  Gospel,  from  which  can  be  recognized  the  es- 
sential features  of  its  initial  presentation  to  them. 

The  first  record  of  Paul's  preaching  to  Gentiles  is  his  address 
to  Sergius  Paulus,  Acts  13,  7  ff.  Since  we  have  no  report  of  it, 
though  as  in  the  case  of  Felix,  24,  24,  the  Proconsul  '  sought  to 
hear  the  word  of  God,'  no  decision  can  be  reached  as  to  its  con- 
tents. It  did  not,  however,  effect  his  conversion.  His  'belief,' 
vs.  12,  was  not  faith  in  Christ,  since  no  reference  is  made  to  his 
baptism;  but  was  beUef  in  the  Didache  of  the  Lord,  as  preached 
by  Paul  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit.'*^ 

*'Wendt  on  the  contrary  understands  Luke  to  assert  his  conversion. 
Knowling  though  undeftnite  is  favorable,  as  is  also  V.  Bartlett.  Rackham 
agrees  with  the  majority  of  critics  in  not  regarding  Sergius  as  a  convert.  The 
five  passages  in  Acts  usually  quoted  to  show  that  '  believed  '  implies  baptism, 
are  imbedded  in  contexts  which  point  to  faith  as  full  acceptance  of  the  Gospel. 
It  may  also  be  noted  that  Elymas'  opposition  is  not  the  usual  outspoken 
blasphemy  of  orthodox  Jews  against  Paul's  arguments  for  the  messiahship 
of  Jesus,  Acts  13,  45;  18,  6,  but  is  full  of  'wile  and  cunning  trickery;  is  enmity 
to  all  righteousness  and  is  a  perversion  of  the  right  ways  of  the  Lord,  i.  e.,  is 
not  attack  on  the  specific  Christian  redemptive  facts  and  doctrines.  Such 
an  unusual  description  may  possibly  refer  to  an  opposition  to  Paul's  intro- 
ductory exposition  of  the  Jewish  apologetic,  which  astonished  Sergius  as  later 
it  terrified  Felix.    Since  the  false  prophet  is  described  in  terms  very  similar 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  91 

At  Lystra  the  miracle  of  the  healing  of  the  lame  man  was  con- 
ditioned by  his  faith  that  the  Apostles  were  ministrants  of  the 
power  of  the  One  God  in  the  Christ  whom  they  preached,  14,  9.7. 
The  populace,  without  that  faith,  see  in  the  miracle  a  proof  of  their 
superstitions.  It  was  viewed  as  a  confirmation  of  their  polytheism 
and  led  to  a  proposal  of  idolatrous  worship.  Hence  the  preaching 
here  is  directed  to  that  one  heathen  error;  using  the  famiUar 
Jewish  propaganda  argimients  against  heathen  gods,  which  are 
vanities,  and  in  favor  of  belief  in  the  one  Hving  God  whose  exist- 
ence, is  witnessed  in  the  universe  He  created,  and  who  therefore 
claims  their  sole  worship;  and  whose  beneficent  providence  as 
ruler  of  nature  has  blessed  their  labors  and  supported  their  life, 
and  therefore  calls  for  their  grateful  obedience.  The  extremely 
condensed  allusion  to  the  fact,  vs.  16,  that  God  had  hitherto  per- 
mitted the  nations  to  walk  in  their  own  ways,  might  suggest  in 
connection  with  Acts  17,  30  and  Rom.  3,  25.26,  a  reference  to  the 
heathen  sins  of  idolatry  and  immoraUty;  but  that  this  and  the 
remaining  topics  of  Jewish  and  Christian  preaching  were  not 
developed,  is  accounted  for  by  the  consideration  that  the  emer- 
gency demanded  emphasis  on  the  subject  of  monotheism.  And 
so  little  impression  did  it  produce  that  even  at  its  close,  he  could 
scarcely  restrain  them  from  going  on  with  the  sacrifices.  There 
would  be  slight  prospect  of  the  attention  of  a  crowd  in  such  a 
mood,  to  further  topics  of  the  mission  preaching. 

In  Philippi  while  the  heathen  mob  can  recognize  Paul  and 
Silas  as  Jewish  missionaries  preaching  the  usual  apologetic  and 
polemic,  16,  20  f.,  we  can  only  conjecturally  recognize  in  Luke^s 
narrative  a  few  more  or  less  probable  indications  of  its  range  of 
contents.  The  slave  girl  has  learned  from  their  preaching  that 
they  are  servants  of  Beds  O^toros,  the  one  supreme  God,  whose 
name  was  common  to  Jew  and  Greek.  Her  owners  may  possibly 
be  distorting  their  preaching  of  the  moral  rules  of  the  Jewish 
catechesis  by  suggesting  that  it  includes  Jewish  customs,  e.  g.^ 
circumcision  and  food  regulations,  contrary  to  Roman  use.  More 
clearly  their  slave's  reference  to  the  'way  of  salvation'  and  the 
jailer's  cry  'what  shall  I  do  to  be  saved,'  points  to  the  Jewish 

to  those  applied  to  the  Jewish  false  teachers  in  the  Epistles,  his  opposition 
to  'the  Didache  of  the  Lord'  could  be  based  on  the  same  false  philosophy 
as  underlay  their  perversion  of  it. 


92    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

preaching  of  a  world  judgment  and  to  the  Christian  preaching 
of  salvation  in  that  day  through  Christ  the  Redeemer  and  Judge. 
It  was,  however,  only  because  the  jailer  accepted  the  warning 
of  a  judgment  for  human  sin,  by  the  One  God,  that  Paul  could 
proceed  to  preach  to  him:  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  and  thou 
shalt  be  saved. 

It  is  at  Athens  appropriately  that  in  the  Areopagus  address 
we  have  the  most  definite  indications  of  the  method,  range  and 
aim  of  the  preparatory  preaching,  and  an  unusually  full  outline 
of  the  first  of  its  topics.^^  KnowUng's  remark.  Acts,  p.  379,  that 
Hhe  speech  contains  so  Uttle  that  is  distinctively  Christian'  is 
a  needed  reminder  that  the  address  is  not,  as  is  often  assumed,  a 
complete  model  of  the  Apostle's  missionary  preaching.  Hamack, 
Miss,  and  Expans.,  I,  382  f.,  in  connection  with  the  carefully 
qualified  statement,  *in  that  model  of  a  mission  address  to  edu- 
cated people  which  is  preserved  in  chap.  17,  the  Pauline  manner 
of  missionary  preaching  is  perfectly  distinct,  in  spite  of  what 
seems  to  be  one  vital  difference,'  gives  what  is  undoubtedly  the 
outline  of  the  missionary  preaching.  But  in  order  to  construct 
that  outline  from  this  address,  he  has  to  insert  into  it  the  dis- 
tinctively Christian  features;  although  Luke  records  the  refusal 
to  listen  further,  upon  hearing  the  assertion  of  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  which  would  have  introduced  the  specifically  Christian 

*•  The  most  recent  argument  in  favor  of  the  redaction  theory  of  the  authorship 
of  Acts,  is  urged  by  Edward  Norden,  Agnostos  Theos,  1913.  He  assigns  the 
composition  of  the  Athens  address  to  a  writer  using  the  traditions  of  the  life 
of  ApoUonius  of  Tyana  recorded  by  his  follower  Damis  the  Assyrian  in  the 
beginning  of  the  second  century,  and  utilized  by  Philostratus  in  his  life  of 
ApoUonius,  written  c.  237  A.  D.  This  theory  has  been  accepted  by  Wendt 
and  Preuschen  in  the  prefaces  to  their  commentaries  on  Acts,  and  by  Reit- 
zenstein,  N.  Jahrb.  f.  Klass.  AUerlhum,  1913,  p.  393.  It  is  rejected  by  Har- 
nack,  Texte  und  Unters,  1913,  Bd.  39,  p.  1  flf.,  both  because  of  the  positive 
arguments  for  Lukan  authorship  based  on  language,  style  and  contents;  and 
also  because  no  proof  can  be  produced  from  the  statements  of  Philostratus 
to  show  that  the  reference  to  altars  of  the  unknown  gods  was  taken 
from  Damis;  that  ApoUonius  was  ever  concerned  with  such  Athenian  altars; 
that  he  ever  made  an  address  starting  from  a  reference  to  an  altar  in- 
scription or  to  altars  of  unknown  gods.  The  theory  has  also  been  re- 
jected by  Burkitt,  JrU.  Theolog.  Stvdiea,  1914,  p.  455,  by  Lagrange,  Revue 
Biblique,  July,  1914,  and  by  Birt,  Rhein.  Mua.  f.  Philog.,  1914,  Bd.  69, 
p342. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  93 

message.'^^  This  had  indeed  akeady  been  delivered  in  Athens, 
17,  17  f.,  not  only  to  Jews  and  godfearers  in  the  synagogue,  but 
also  to  Gentiles  in  the  Agora.  But  as  throughout  Acts,  Luke  has 
not  here  recorded  the  contents  of  this  Gospel  preaching  to  the 
heathen,  which  was  to  reahze  the  aims  set  before  the  Apostle  to 
the  Gentiles  at  his  conversion,  Acts  26,  18-20.  Hamack  while 
emphasizing  that  this  is  true  of  Acts  apart  from  the  address  at 
Athens,^^  insists,  however,  that  Luke  intends  this  address  to  be 
his  report  of  Paul's  Gentile  preaching.  This  claim  rests  upon  his 
assumption  that  such  a  report  was  absolutely  necessary  in  view 
of  the  literary  structure  of  Acts,  which  he  thinks  calls  for  an  ad- 
dress to  Jews,  ch.  13,  to  heathen,  ch.  17,  and  to  assembled  Chris- 
tians, ch.  20;  and  on  the  further  assumption  that  the  aim  of  Acts, 
since  it  is  a  continuation  of  the  Gospel,  must  be  to  report  'con- 
cerning all  things  which  the  Apostles  began  to  do  and  to  teach.* 
A  report  of  the  Gentile  preaching  would  obviously  be  necessary 
on  this  last  assumption.  But  it  must  be  rejected  not  only  as  being 
a  misconception  of  the  relation  of  the  Gospel  and  Acts,  but  as 
being  inconsistent,  especially  with  regard  to  Apostolic  teaching, 
with  the  actual  character  and  contents  of  Acts.  The  other  as- 
sumption connected  with  the  Uterary  structure,  also  calls  for 
such  modifications  as  would  counteract  its  support  of  Harnack's 
a  priori  theory  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  distinct  report  of 
Gospel  preaching  to  the  Gentiles. 

Luke's  interest,  on  the  other  hand,  is  in  this  chapter,  in  PauFs 
contact  with  heathen  philosophers,  who  by  wisdom  knew  not  God; 
and  who  though  asking  to  know  what  this  new  teaching  is  and 

"J.  Weiss,  Urchristm,  p.  184:  'The  Areopagus  address  however  has  surely 
delineated  only  one  side  of  the  preaching  of  Paul,  when  it  presents  him  as 
emplo3dng  the  philosophical  methods  of  the  hellenistic  enlightenment  and 
appealing  to  the  reason  of  the  hearers.  And  it  is,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a  skillful 
feature  of  the  recital  that  the  attention  and  assent  of  the  hearers  is  immediately 
at  an  end,  when  he  begins  to  announce  the  specific  content  of  the  Gospel; 
the  approaching  world-judgment  and  the  risen  Christ.' 

*^  Texte  u.  Unters,  Bd.  39,  p.  2:  *If  Acts  17,  21  ff.  be  removed,  we  ascertain 
from  the  whole  Book  only  quite  insufficiently,  what  kind  of  a  teaching  Paul 
brought  to  the  Gentiles.  The  aim  of  the  Book  to  report  irepl  iravTcav 
S)v  rjp^avTO  oi  airoGToKoi  Troulv  re  Kal  StSdcr/cetJ',  would  remain  im- 
realized  as  concerns  the  chief  Apostle,  in  regard  to  the  most  important 
point,  that  of  teaching.' 


94    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

means,  yet  like  doubting  Pilate  asking  'what  is  truth,'  would  not 
stay  to  listen  to  the  foolishness  of  the  preaching  of  the  cross  and 
resurrection,  as  revealing  the  power  and  wisdom  of  God.  The 
method  of  approach  to  them  is,  as  in  all  Paul's  preaching  to  Gentiles, 
cp.  Acts  19,  37,  respectful  and  conciliatory  throughout.  At  the 
outset  they  are  addressed  as  'exceedingly  Godfearing.'  The 
structure  of  the  address  reveals  that  it  is  based  on  the  usual  type  of 
Jewish  and  Christian  propaganda  preaching:  monotheism,  vss. 
23-29;  the  Way  of  righteousness  and  of  sin,  calling  for  repentance, 
vs.  30;  and  the  messianic  world-judgment,  vs.  3L  This  disparity 
in  the  length  of  the  record  of  the  discussion  of  the  three  subjects, 
points  to  the  special  interest  in  the  true  doctrine  of  God  as  the 
basis  of  approach  to  all  the  rest  of  his  Gospel  preaching,  which  is 
essentially  related  to  the  existence,  moral  rule  and  eternal  redeem- 
ing purpose  of  a  personal  God.'^  The  occasion  of  the  address, 
moreover,  naturally  led  to  this  emphasis  on  the  subject  of  mono- 
theism: the  preacher's  spirit  had  been  provoked  within  him,  as  he 
beheld  the  city  full  of  idols;  and  his  hearers'  interest  in  him  had 
been  evoked  by  his  seeming  to  be  a  setter  forth  of  strange 
gods. 

The  mode  of  approach  to  them  in  declaring  unto  them  his 
doctrine  of  God,  is  his  appropriation  of  the  polemic  common  to  the 
later  Greek  philosophy  and  Jewish  propaganda,  against  polythe- 
ism and  idolatry;  and  in  advance  upon  this  his  reference  to  the 
doctrine  of  Agnostos  theos,  cp.  Norden,  55-124,  both  to  present  his 
Jewish  and  Christian  monotheism  as  a  divine  self-revelation,  and 
also  the  heathen  ignorance  shown  in  their  worship  and  sin,  ayvoia, 
and  calling  for  repentance.  The  parallels  in  Jewish  and  Christian 
literature  and  in  Greek  philosophy,  especially  in  Stoicism,  are 
noted  in  the  commentaries  from  Wettstein's  collections,  in  Geff- 
cken's  work  already  cited  and  most  fully  in  Norden,  op.  eit.,  p. 
13  ff.    Hamack,  op.  cit.,  p.  23,  however,  enters  a  caveat  against 

*•  Lightfoot,  PhUippiana,  317.  The  fundamental  and  invincible  error  of 
Stoic  philosophy  was  its  theological  creed;  its  theology  was,  as  dogmatically 
expounded  by  its  ablest  teachers,  nothing  better  than  a  pantheistic  material- 
ism. And  with  the  belief  in  a  Personal  Being,  the  sense  of  sin  also  will  stand 
or  faU,  p.  319.  It  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  Stoic  whether  he  doubted 
or  believed  or  denied  the  immortality  of  man;  for  the  doctrine  was  wholly 
external  to  his  creed,  and  nothing  could  be  gained  or  lost  by  the  decision, 
p.  322  f. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  95 

exploiting  these  parallels  in  the  interest  of  the  theory  of  a  second 
century  redactor  who  here  directly  borrows  his  material  from  the 
literatm-e  of  Jewish  polemic.'*^ 

In  connection  with  these  parallels  it  is  also  to  be  recalled  that  in 
the  original  full  discourse,  of  which  we  have  only  a  summary  of 
extreme  brevity,  there  must  have  been  developments  of  the 
essential  differences  between  Christian  and  Stoic  theology,  such  as 
are  noted  in  the  passages  that  have  been  quoted  from  Lightfoot. 
Suggestions  of  the  lines  of  such  development  are  offered  in  the 
application  of  the  Apostle's  declaration  of  God  to  sin  and  world- 
judgment  in  vss.  30.31.  While  the  Stoic  doctrine  of  God  makes 
temple  worship  and  idolatry  merely  unreasonable,  Paul's  doctrine 
of  God  the  creator  has  made  it  a  sinful  ignorance  which  calls  for 
repentance,  vs.  30.  And  the  whole  trend  of  the  statements,  vs. 
26  ff.,  concerning  divine  providence,  the  unity  of  mankind  under 
one  moral  government  and  in  order  to  realize  the  eternal  purpose 
of  communion  with  God,  must  have  been  developed  along  supple- 
mentary lines  in  definite  contrasts  to  Stoic  irpbvoia,  so  Knowling 
and  Blass,  in  loco,  and  self-sufficiency  'which  stood  in  no  need  of 
atonement  and  feared  no  judgment  to  come, '  Knowling;  since  it 
led  up,  vs.  31,  to  the  Apostle's  warning  of  a  day  of  judgment  in 
righteousness. 

On  this  basis  he  is  prepared  to  offer  to  them  his  Gospel:  it  will  be 
the  message  of  salvation  in  this  judgment;  and  a  present  gift  of  the 
Spirit  will  be  the  pledge  of  that  future  consummation  of  salvation. 
The  ApostM^'s  transition  from  Jewish  to  definite  Christian  apologia 
is  in  the  declaration  that  the  Judge  is  the  Man  proved  so  divinely 
appointed  by  his  resurrection  from  the  dead.  At  this  point  he 
would  be  in  a  position  here  in  Athens  as  in  all  Gentile  evangehza- 
tion  to  present  the  constant  type  of  Christian  apologia,  already 
recorded  by  Luke  as  addressed  to  Jewish  hearers  with  the  neces- 
sary differences  of  emphasis  on  special  features  of  the  witness; 
cp.  Acts  26,  20.  And  following  this  witness  that  Jesus  is  Christ  and 
Lord,  would  be  given  the  Paraklesis  not  to  neglect  so  great  salva- 

*^  In  view  of  the  force  and  compactness  of  the  address,  one  must  also  be  very 
skeptical  towards  the  hypothesis  of  direct  borrowings  of  particular  statements 
in  it,  from  determinate  sources.  He  who  could  compose  this  address  did  not 
delve  among  mosaic-scraps,  but  drew  out  of  an  abimdance  and  out  of  long 
familiarity  with  all  the  thoughts  which  he  has  here  set  forth.' 


96      APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

tion,  but  to  accept  it  with  faith  and  repentance  to  be  professed  in 
baptism  after  full  instruction  in  the  preparatory  catechesis. 

But  we  know  the  Athenian  mockery  of  the  Resurrection  and 
Paul's  conviction  of  the  uselessness  of  further  attempts  at  evan- 
gelization of  a  salvation  in  a  general  resurrection,  so  long  as  this 
was  to  them  not  only  incredible  but  absurd. 

A  final  instance  of  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  Gospel  apologia  in 
winning  a  heathen  who  does  not  accept  the  preparatory  Jewish 
apologetic,  is  Paul's  experience  with  Felix,  Acts  24.24  fif.  J.  Weiss, 
Urchrstm.,  p.  60,  finds  in  vs.  25  a  reason  for  believing  that  Acts  was 
not  written  until  c.  100  a.  d.  He  claims  that  an  author  who  can 
define  the  content  of  Paul's  preaching  'concerning  the  faith  in 
Christ  Jesus,'  vs.  24,  to  be  a  reasoning  concerning  righteousness 
and  self-control  and  the  judgment  to  come,  can  have  little  connec- 
tion with  primitive  Christianity,  and  betrays  that  he  belongs  to 
the  class  of  second  Christian  century  apologists.  It  would,  however, 
be  truer  in  this  verse,  to  find  its  source  in  the  apologists  of  the 
second  pre-Christian  century. 

But  apart  from  the  consideration  that  Acts  elsewhere  contains 
numerous  adequate  summaries  of  the  essential  Gospel  preaching 
of  the  Apostle,  this  reasoning  with  Felix  is  not  intended  as  a  de- 
scription of  Paul's  complete  presentation  of  the  Gospel.  Felix 
was  a  heathen.  Having  married  the  Jewess  Drusilla,  though 
refusing  unlike  her  first  husband  Azizus,  King  of  Emesa,  to  be 
circumcised,  he  was  doubtless  familiar  with  the  Jewish  propaganda 
teachings;  and  even  knew  accurately  rd  irepl  ttjs  '05oO,  vs.  22. 
We  may  further  observe  that  in  his  previous  public  defense  before 
Felix,  Paul  had  described  his  Christian  faith  in  the  only  category 
the  heathen  procurator  could  understand:  that  of  its  relation  to 
the  three  fundamental  topics  of  Jewish  propaganda.  The  Chris- 
tian Way,  vs.  14,  which  the  Jew  proscribes  as  a  'heresy,'  i.  e.  a 
teaching  distinct  from  the  Jewish  religion,  is  in  fact  true  Judaism. 
For  in  accordance  with  this  Christian  Way,  first  he  worships 
Israel's  God  and  believes  fully  in  the  Old  Testament  revelation. 
Next  he  shares  Israel's  hope  of  a  general  resurrection,  with  its 
accompanying  awards  in  a  judgment.  Finally  in  view  of  that 
judgment,  he  exercises  himself  to  have  a  conscience  void  of  offense, 
i,  e.,  of  sins  against  God  and  man,  the  special  topic  of  the  Two 
Ways.    Therefore  the  real  difference  between  him  and  the  Jews  is 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  97 

concerning  the  means  of  salvation  in  the  general  resurrection  for 
judgment.  Paul  stands  before  Felix  because  of  his  preaching  of 
Christ's  resurrection  as  Festus  too  learns  later,  and  as  Agrippa 
learns  in  full  detail;  and  definitely  for  preaching  that  because  He  is 
risen,  He  is  the  sole  source  of  salvation  for  Jew  and  heathen,  26,  18. 
In  the  private  conference  with  this  heathen  concerning  the  faith 
in  Christ  Jesus,  Paul  again  begins  with  the  fundamental  topics  of 
the  rehgion  of  Israel.  The  topic  concerning  monotheism  that  was 
developed  at  Lystra  and  at  Athens  is  here  omitted.  And  therefore 
Felix  having  a  Jewish  wife  who  is  expressly  mentioned  as  being 
present,  and  having  also  a  position  which  would  imply  familiarity 
with  contemporary  Grseco-Roman  philosophic  culture,  may  not 
unreasonably  be  presumed  to  be  a  nominal  monotheist.  As  Paul 
on  Mars'  Hill  had  proceeded  from  monotheism  to  repentance  for 
sin,  so  Felix  as  preparatory  to  an  understanding  of  redemption  by 
faith  in  Christ,  must  be  brought  to  a  penitent  conviction  of  his 
need  of  righteousness  and  self-control  demanded  in  the  Two  Ways. 
And  likewise  as  at  Athens  the  Apostle  advanced  to  the  day  ap- 
pointed in  which  God  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  so  here 
he  brings  to  Felix  the  terxifying  warning  of  the  judgment  to  come. 
Here  too  as  at  Athens  he  is  dismissed  at  this  point  of  transition  to 
the  defense  and  confirmation  of  the  faith  in  Christ.  The  Gospel 
of  salvation  from  judgment  by  this  faith  in  Jesus,  had  therefore 
not  obtained  a  hearing  either  in  Caesarea's  Palace  or  on  the  Hill 
of  Mars.^* 

^  A  similar  question  has  been  raised  concerning  the  description  of  the 
gospel  in  Rev.  14,  6  f.  Moffatt  remarks  that  the  substance  of  its  eternal 
gospel  is  not  much  of  a  gospel  and  the  prophet  does  not  look  for  much  result, 
if  any.  So  Simcox:  it  is  pure  natural  theism;  and  Swete:  it  seems  to  be  the 
reverse  of  a  gospel.  Swete's  further  comments:  that  al6)PL0V  evayyiKiov 
without  the  article  is  not  'The  everlasting  Gospel,'  the  Gospel  as  a  whole, 
similarly  Bousset,  but  rather  a  Gospel  which  is  a  particular  aspect  of  it;  that 
it  is  an  appeal  to  the  conscience  of  untaught  heathendom,  cp.  its  universal 
destination  in  6b,  incapable  of  comprehending  any  other;  that  the  basis  of 
the  appeal  is  pure  theism;  that  it  sums  up  the  claim  of  the  Creator  as  such 
upon  the  allegiance  of  mankind,  and  the  appeal  to  Nature  can  go  no  further; 
that  Uke  the  address  at  Lystra  it  contains  no  reference  to  the  Christian  hope, 
and  no  '  beUeve  in  the  Gospel,'  Mk.  1,  14,  tempers  the  sternness  of  the  cry; 
are  all  suggestions  that  the  final  warning  to  the  heathen  world  by  the  angel 
of  judgment,  is  not  merely,  with  Swete  and  Bousset,  Hhe  Grospel  of  the 
Parousia  and  the  consummation  which  the  Parousia  will  bring,'  but  is  framed 


98    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

The  fact  then  remains  that  nowhere  in  Acts  has  Luke  recorded 
the  details  of  the  presentation  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles.  It  is 
assumed  throughout  the  narrative  of  the  mission  work  of  Paul, 
to  be  the  same  message  as  is  given  to  Jews  in  the  earlier  chapters. 
The  three  addresses  at  Lystra,  Athens  and  Caesarea  are  given  in 
compressed  summary  as  a  record  of  the  Apostle's  preparation  of 
his  Gentile  hearers  for  his  Gospel  of  the  common  salvation.  And 
these  indications  of  his  method  of  preparing  for  the  presentation  of 
the  Gospel  correspond  to  and  are  confirmed  by  the  frequent 
allusions  in  the  Epistles  to  former  heathen,  concerning  the  initial 
preaching  among  them.  Whether  we  consider  Paul's  summary  of 
his  introductory  propaganda  preaching,  or  his  descriptions  of  the 
state  of  the  heathen  before  and  after  their  conversion,  we  find  that 
his  statements  are  uniformly  framed  upon  the  basis  of  the  pre- 
paratory apologia  concerning  idolatry,  the  resulting  immorality 
and  impending  judgment  upon  it,  which  would  serve  to  awaken  in 
the  heathen  a  conviction  of  sin  and  a  hunger  for  the  salvation 
offered  to  them  in  the  succeeding  witness  and  call  of  the  Gospel. 

We  have  already  recognized  this  method  of  approach  in  Rom.  1, 
18  ff.;  and  may  here  add  that  Paul  had  already  given  in  II  Thess. 
2,  10-12,  the  same  view  of  heathenism  as  receiving  not  the  love  of 
the  truth  and  deUvered,  cp.  Rom.  1,  28,  to  a  working  of  error  to  be- 
lieve the  lie,  'opposed  to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel ' ;  as  having  pleasure 
in  unrighteousness,  cp.  Rom.  1,  32;  and  as  awaiting  Judgment.  As 
the  counterpart,  the  heathen  converts  of  Thessalonica,  at  Paul's 
'entering  in  unto  them,'  turned  to  God  from  idols,  in  order  to 
serve  the  living  and  true  God  and  to  await  his  Son  from  heaven, 
Jesus  the  deUverer  from  the  wrath  to  come,  1  Thess.  1,  9  f.  In 
summing  up  the  previous  condition  of  the  Gentile  readers  of  his 

upon  the  whole  contents  of  the  preaching  introductory  to  the  Gospel  of  sal- 
vation at  that  Parousia.  And  on  comparing  the  contents  of  his  gospel  with 
Paul's  summary  of  his  preaching  to  heathen  in  Rom.  1,  18  flF.,  we  find  the 
declaration  to  God  as  creator  in  Rev.  14,  7,  developed  in  Rom.  1,  19  f.;  the 
call  to  fear  God,  to  give  him  glory,  to  worship  him,  closely  paralleled  even  in 
wording  in  vss.  21-25;  the  need  of  repentance  in  view  of  the  hour  of  his  judg- 
ment, summarizing  Rom.  1,  26-2,  16.  And  the  description  of  the  angelic 
warning  to  the  heathen  of  the  hour  of  judgment  and  of  their  need  of  repent- 
ance and  of  conversion  to  God,  as  al6)VL0V  evayyiXiOV^  is  repeated  in  Paul's 
description  2,  16  of  the  divine  judgment  as  being  'according  to  my  Gospel 
by  Jesus  Christ.' 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  99 

encyclical  to  the  Ephesians,  he  uses  the  same  three  fold  description 
of  it,  which  would  furnish  the  occasion  for  the  three  fold  intro- 
ductory apologia  of  the  mission  preaching.  For  in  Eph.  4,  17  ff., 
the  readers  were  formerly  alienated  from  the  life  of  God,  and  this 
as  in  Rom.  1,  18  ff.  and  in  Acts  17,  on  account  of  their  ayvoLa  due  to 
the  vanity  of  their  vovs,  the  darkening  of  their  Sidvoia  and  the 
hardening  of  their  Kapdia;  consequently  in  the  sphere  of  morals 
they  had  given  themselves  over  to  lasciviousness  to  work  all  un- 
cleanness  with  greediness,  vs.  19;  whence  cometh  the  wrath  of 
God,  5,  6  and  pll.  Col.  3,  6.  The  same  description  underlies  the 
brief  parallel  summary  in  Col.  1,  21;  and  it  reappears  in  I  Pet.  4, 
3-5,  addressed  to  Gentile  converts  who  formerly  walked,  1,  14, 
in  their  ayvoLa,  in  idolatries  contrary  to  the  eternal  principles  of 
right,  godless,  adifiLTOi;  in  lasciviousness  and  other  vices;  for 
which  sins  the  Gentiles  will  give  account  to  Him  who  is  ready  to 
judge  quick  and  dead. 

And  when,  further,  the  Apostle  so  frequently  recalls  his  converts* 
response  to  his  initial  preaching  and  to  his  own  zeal  for  the  develop- 
ment of  their  new  life,  it  is  always  in  terms  directly  corresponding 
to  the  three  fundamental  subjects  of  his  original  approach  to  them. 
The  converts,  Eph.  4,  22,  have  been  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  their 
mind  from  their  previous  alienation  from  God  in  ayvota;  in  con- 
trast to  their  former  immorality,  they  have  put  on  the  new  man 
created  in  righteous  and  holiness  of  truth;  are  no  longer  facing  the 
wrath  of  God,  5,  6,  but  have  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
and  God,  vs.  5.  He  prays  for  the  growth  of  the  Colossians  in 
epignosis  of  God  and  of  his  will;  for  their  worthy  moral  walk;  for 
their  strengthening  in  patient  endurance,  inspired  by  grateful  joy 
for  admission  to  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light,  1,  9  ff.  In 
his  latest  summaries  of  the  Gospel,  Titus  2,  11  ff.  and  3,  3  ff.,  the 
basis  is  again  the  Epiphany  of  the  grace,  kindness  and  love  of  God 
our  Saviour  towards  man,  training  us  to  renounce  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  and  to  live  soberly,  righteously  and  godly;  and 
inspiring  us  to  such  life  by  the  blessed  hope  and  appearing  of  the 
glory  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

The  fact  that  these  sections  in  Titus  are  paralleled  and  summed 
up  in  the  opening  verse  as  faith,  godliness  and  hope;  that  the  three- 
fold structure  in  Col.  1,  9  ff.  is  summed  up  in  1,  4  as  faith,  love  and 
hope;  that  the  description,  Eph.  4, 17  ff.,  is  related  to  faith,  love  and 


100    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

hope  in  1,  15.18;  and,  to  add  but  one  more  instance,  that  the 
threefold  characterization  of  the  Thessalonians*  conversion,  1, 
9.10,  has  already  been  given  in  1,  3  as  a  life  of  faith,  love  and  hope, 
strongly  points  to  the  origin  of  this  triad  as  related  to  the  response 
of  faith  by  the  heathen  converts  in  the  revelation  of  God  in 
Christ,  to  their  obedience  to  the  call  to  a  new  moral  life  of  love 
fulfilling  all  law,  and  to  their  appropriation  by  hope  of  the  con- 
summated salvation  at  the  coming  of  Christ  in  glory.  But  they 
are  obviously  distinctively  Christian  terms  related  to  the  definite 
Gospel  preaching  and  instruction  and  to  professions  at  baptism. 
This  combined  relation  to  the  preparatory  apologia  and  to  the 
perfected  Christian  life,  cp.  I  Cor.  13,  13,  leads  us  therefore  to 
recognize,  as  we  can  only  hope  to  do  from  the  allusions  to  evan- 
gelization in  the  Epistles,  that  the  propaganda  apologetic  was  not 
a  bare  repetition  of  Jewish  themes,  but  that  it  was  throughout 
vivified  with  the  Christian  revelation,  moral  ideals  and  inspiring 
and  invigorating  hope.  We  have  already  observed  that  even  the 
compressed  outline  of  the  Areopagus  address  pointed  to  a  definite 
Christian  development  of  its  topics.  In  the  general  Gentile  mis- 
sion preaching,  the  ignorance  concerning  the  true  God  would 
certainly  call  for  the  presentation  of  the  *  light  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of 
God, '  II  Cor.  4,  4-8.  And  this  would  involve  some  portraiture  of 
the  life,  message  and  redeeming  work  of  the  Christ,  tending 
of  itself  to  effect  the  realization  of  his  own  revelations  of  the 
divine  purpose:  *It  may  be  they  will  reverence  my  Son,*  Mk.  12, 
6;  Lk.  20,  13.  Surely  too  the  Jewish  Didache  of  the  Two  Ways 
of  life  and  death,  fight  and  darkness,  with  its  vice  lists  and 
precepts  of  virtues,  needed  and  received  from  the  preaching  of 
Christ  as  the  moral  ideal  and  from  his  own  perfect  fulfillment  of 
the  divine  will  and  law,  the  Christian  revelation  that  love  is  the 
fulfillment  of  all  law;  and  more,  the  revelation  of  the  moral 
dynamic  in  the  love  of  Christ  constraining  us  to  walk  in  love  even 
as  he  loved  us  and  gave  himself  up  for  us,  Eph.  5,  2.  And  the 
reiteration  of  the  Jewish  proclamation  of  divine  judgment  had 
not  only  to  be  enforced  by  awaking  personal  conviction  of  sinful- 
ness, but  also  to  be  supplemented  by  the  Gospel  of  redemption 
by  Christ,  himself  the  Judge,  with  its  hope  of  inheritance  in  the 
kingdom  of  his  glory.     A  hope  assured  by  the  promise  of  the 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THEGOSPfiL  'lOl 

present  gift  of  his  Spirit  as  a  pledge  and  earnest  of  the  perfected 
salvation. 

The  Gentiles'  response  of  faith  to  this  call  to  salvation,  would 
necessarily  demand  most  certain  proofs  of  the  validity  of  the 
apostolic  witness  to  Jesus  as  Christ  and  Lord  in  whom  is  the 
absolute  revelation  of  God  and  the  sole  redemption  of  humanity. 
All  objections  to  that  witness  would  be  urged  among  the  Gentiles 
by  Jews  who  spoke  evil  of  that  Way;  by  philosophers  who  mocked 
at  the  Cross  and  Resurrection;  by  adherents  of  the  mystery  re- 
ligions, who  themselves  offered  revelation  and  redemption  in 
their  cults.  Heathen  converts  were,  besides,  called  upon  to  make 
in  some  ways  greater  sacrifices  than  the  Jews.  The  latter  could 
continue  to  share  in  the  synagogue  and  Temple  services;  while 
the  Gentile  Christians  would  be  called  upon  to  abandon  the  heathen 
temple  worship,  although  it  was  intertwined  with  their  family 
life,  commercial  relations  and  civic  fellowship.  In  view  of  such 
objections  and  sacrifices,  and  of  the  revolution  which  the  Christian 
faith  demanded  of  his  whole  world-view,  of  his  moral  conscious- 
ness, habits  and  motives:  literally  to  put  off  the  whole  old  man 
and  fixed  character,  we  realize  how  complete  and  compelling  must 
have  been  the  defense  of  the  Gospel  call  and  witness  that  proved 
successful  in  effecting  such  a  transformation.  The  preaching 
that  evoked  this  new  life  of  faith  could  not  have  been  in  mere 
persuasive  words  of  wisdom  but  only  in  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit  and  in  power. 

In  the  absence  in  the  New  Testament  of  any  reiteration  of  this 
'demonstration  of  the  Spirit'  to  the  Gentile  readers  who  had 
been  converted  by  it,  we  can  only  theorize  as  to  the  details  of  the 
method.  The  several  lines  of  witness  to  the  Gospel  would  with- 
out question  not  only  receive  differing  emphases,  but  would  also 
necessarily  be  presented  in  an  order  different  from  that  followed 
in  the  apologia  delivered  in  the  synagogue.  There,  as  we  could 
expect  and  as  is  recorded,  the  approach  was  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment messianic  hope  to  its  fulfillment  in  Jesus;  the  obstacle  of 
the  cross  being  removed  both  by  means  of  the  witness  of  prophecy 
and  by  the  Gospel  of  the  resurrection  resting  not  only  on  the 
witness  of  the  Old  Testament  and  on  the  Apostles'  testimony, 
but  also  on  the  witness  of  their  personal  experience  of  the  gift  of 
the  Spirit  from  the  risen  Christ. 


102'   APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

But  among  the  Gentiles,  as  we  should  anticipate  and  as  Paul 
recalls  in  the  four  Epistles  to  churches  he  himself  had  founded, 
this  witness  of  the  personal  spiritual  experience  of  the  preachers 
is  in  the  forefront.  The  evangeUsts  of  Thessalonica  describe  their 
preaching  there  as  having  been  not  in  word  only  but  also  in  power 
and  in  the  Holy  Spirit  and  in  much  full  assurance,  TrXrjpoipopia, 
I  Thess.  1,  5.  It  is,  of  course,  not  here  meant  that  they  began 
with  an  assertion  of  their  spiritual  gifts,  but  that  their  message 
was  throughout  a  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  in  their  lives  and 
ministry.  It  was  not  'the  threshed  out  arguments  of  the  age  of 
the  Greek  enUghtenment  that  could  convert  their  hearers.  So 
important  as  it  was  that  an  intellectual  framework  for  the  proof 
of  monotheism  was  already  provided,  yet  the  impelling  and  de- 
termining force  must  have  been  supplied  by  convinced  personaU- 
ties.'  J.  Weiss,  Urchristm.,  p.  184  f.  In  the  Apostles'  declaration 
of  the  revelation  of  the  true  and  living  God  in  the  person  and 
work  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  was  their  own  full  assurance  of  its  cer- 
tainty, their  evident  personal  devotion  to  its  truth,  their  own 
clear  consciousness  of  direct  communion  with  the  divine  life, 
that  offered  a  most  impressive  demonstration  of  the  Gospel 
they  preached.'*^  Their  own  possession  of  the  mind  and  Spirit 
of  the  Christ,  manifest  in  their  walk  in  love,  cp.  I  Thess.  2,  10, 
and  in  their  own  realization  of  the  ideals  of  piety  revealed  both 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  teachings  and  life  of  their  Master, 
was  likewise  a  living  demonstration  of  the  incomparable  moral 
worth  and  transforming  power  of  their  Gospel.  And  the  call  to 
accept  Christ's  salvation  and  to  enter  into  the  new  life  of  the 
Spirit  came  from  them  with  the  persuasiveness  and  assurance 
of  their  own  peace,  union  with  God  and  exulting  hope  of  glory. 
This  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power  in  their  personal 
experience  accompanied  and  confirmed  each  of  the  essential 
forms  of  their  witness;  and  it  was  itself  the  definite  confirmation 
of  their  witness  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ  risen  as  the  source  of  their 
new  life  of  the  Spirit's  indwelling  and  of  their  gifts  of  spiritual 
power. 

Yet  even  this  equipment  of  the  preachers  with  the  Spirit,  cp. 
Mtw.  10,  19  f.;  Acts  1,  8,  was  not  of  itself  sufficient  to  effect  their 
hearers'  conviction.    Not  only  might  the  Tongues  of  Pentecost 
*•  Cp.  Phillips  Brooks,  Lectures  on  Preaching,  Truth  and  personality,  p.  5  flf. 


THE  CALL  TO  FAITH  IN  THE  GOSPEL  103 

and  of  the  Corinthian  Church,  I  Cor.  14,  22,  produce  merely 
the  impression  of  intoxication  or  madness,  but  even  the  exalted 
apologias  of  Paul  in  the  great  hours  on  the  Areopagus  and  in 
the  palace  of  Caesarea  evoked  only  the  similar  mocking,  5ta — 
xKeva^€Lv  of  Athenian  philosophers  and  the  similar  charge  of 
'madness'  by  the  Roman  Procurator,  Acts  26,  24.  There  was 
therefore  needed  in  addition  to  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  witness  of  the  preachers,  an  accompanying  ministry  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  personality  of  the  hearers,  in  order  that  they  might 
accept  the  word  of  the  message  not  as  'the  word  of  men  but  as 
it  is  in  truth  the  word  of  God  which  is  made  operative  in  them 
that  believe.'  I  Thess.  2, 13.  The  first  result  of  this  operation  of 
the  Spirit  is  expressed  in  the  description.  Acts  2,  36,  of  the  hearers 
of  Peter's  apologia  being  'pricked  at  the  heart.'  It  is  not  yet 
definitely  conversion,  repentance  and  certitude  of  faith,  as  is 
evident  both  in  their  inquiry  'what  shall  we  do'  and  in  the  con- 
tents of  the  reply  to  it;  cp.  also  Acts  16,  30  ff.  It  is,  however,  a 
spiritually  effected  recognition  of  the  truth  of  the  witness;  an 
opening  of  the  eyes,  26,  18,  and  of  the  heart  'to  attend'  to  the 
things  spoken,  16, 14;  8,  6.  Paul  once  recalls,  I  Cor.  14,  23  ff.,  the 
vivid  picture  of  a  typical  instance  of  this  initial  response  to  the 
Spirit's  ministry  in  the  prophets  of  Corinth:  the  hearer  'is  con- 
victed by  all,  he  is  judged  by  all,  the  secrets  of  his  heart  are  made 
manifest;  and  so  he  will  fall  down  on  his  face  and  worship  God, 
declaring  that  God  is  among  you  indeed.' 

The  apol6gia  of  the  Gospel  to  Jew  and  Gentile  has  thus  by  the 
ministry  of  the  Spirit  in  evangelist  and  hearer  effected  its  definite 
purpose.  It  is  not  only  to  teach  and  to  arouse  conviction,  but  is 
to  be  the  means  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  supernatural  action  of 
God,  J.  Weiss,  op.  ciL,  p.  187.  That  divine  activity  begun  in  the 
mission  preaching  and  issuing  at  length  in  full  assurance  of  faith , 
will  next  be  exercised  in  connection  with  the  ministry  of  catechesis, 
in  preparation  of  the  converts  for  their  profession  of  faith  in 
baptism. 


CHAPTER  V 

ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  AND  STANDING  STEADFAST  IN  THE  FAITH 
1.   THE  PRIMITIVE  CATECHESIS 

Indications  of  an  instruction  preparatory  to  baptism,  are  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  the  New  Testament;  yet  its  prevalence 
is  ordinarily  recognized  in  works  on  primitive  Christianity  only 
by  undeveloped  allusions  to  it,  as  by  Weizsacker,  Apos.  Age,  II, 
262.303  f.  and  V.  Bartlet,  Apos.  Age,  354  ff.  And  in  special 
treatises  its  character  and  possible  contents  have  not,  until  re- 
cently, been  investigated  in  detail.  The  interest  of  scholars  has 
ordinarily  been  devoted  rather  to  the  catechesis  of*  the  early 
Church,  beginning  with  the  direct  references  to  it  near  the  close 
of  the  second  century,  and  in  the  developed  institution  of  the 
catechumenate.  In  some  cases,  moreover,  catechesis  in  the  New 
Testament  has  been  confused  with  instruction  of  any  character. 
Thus  G.  Bareille,  in  Diet,  de  Theologic  CathoHque,  s.  v.  Cat^chese, 
offers  St.  Peter's  Pentecost  sermon  and  especially  the  portion  of 
it  which  is  apologia,  as  the  first  record  of  New  Testament  cate- 
chesis; and  further  includes  the  second  century  Apologies  as 
examples  of  catechesis. 

Its  distinct  character  has,  however,  been  briefly  indicated  by 
Holtzmann  in  his  essay,  Die  Katechese  der  alten  Kirche,^  which 
is  concerned  principally  with  the  later  period.  But  in  accordance 
with  this  brief  summary  of  the  New  Testament  data,  he  recognizes, 
p.  65,  that  catechesis  would  be  just  as  old  as  Christianity  itself. 
The  children  begotten  through  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  babes  in  Christ  must  be  fed  with  milk,  I  Cor.  3,  16;  Hbws.  5, 
13.  There  is  further  the  distinction  between  the  initial  elementary' 
teaching  and  the  instruction  of  the  more  advanced  Christians, 
Hbws.  5,  22-6,  2;  and  also  between  the  catechists  and  catechumens 
of  the  relatively  young  churches  of  Galatia,  Gal.  6,  6,  and  the 
teaching  functions  in  the  churches  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  with 
a  larger  development.  While  to  Holtzmann,  p.  63  f.,  Mtw.  28,  19, 
»  Theolog.  Abhandlungen  C.  von  Weizsdcker  geundmet,  1892,  p.  59  flf. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  105 

'*is  not  a  word  of  the  Lord  in  strict  historical  sense,  yet  in  it  is 
made  known  the  fact  that  Christian  baptism  appeared  from  the 
first  as  organically  connected  with  an  instruction  which  qualified 
for  its  reception."  In  this  passage  he  finds  the  subject  of  in- 
instruction  to  be,  not  the  Trinity,  but  "the  complex  or  Christian 
moral  commands,"  which  in  the  mind  of  the  First  Evangelist 
refers  above  all  to  the  new  law  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  In 
Acts  8,  35;  18,  26,  he  finds  a  summary  instruction  preceding 
baptism,  in  reference  to  the  chief  points  of  faith. 

The  publication  of  the  Didache  in  1883,  and  its  very  general 
assignment  to  a  date  in  the  early  second  century,  inevitably 
awakened  direct  interest  in  the  catechetical  instruction  of  the 
Apostolic  Age.  Notably  an  attempt  has  been  made  by  Alfred 
Seeberg  to  reconstruct  its  form  and  some  of  its  contents,  in  a 
series  of  monographs.^  Our  present  interest  in  the  fact  of  such 
definite  preparatory  instruction,  however  it  may  be  recon- 
structed, is  its  relation  both  to  the  defense  of  the  faith  awakened 
in  the  propaganda  preaching  and  also  to  the  apologetic  element 
in  the  Epistles  and  Gospels. 

That  there  was  need  for  it  may  be  concluded  from  the  fact 
that  the  propaganda  preaching,  although  it  was  fuller  and  more 
developed  than  the  brief  smnmaries  of  our  records,  could  not  meet 
with  sufficient  definiteness  the  various  intellectual  and  spiritual 
needs  of  the  individual  hearers  in  the  crowds  to  which  it  was  or- 
dinarily addi^essed.  The  Church  too  would  need  to  be  assured 
of  the  convert's  full  understanding  of  his  baptismal  profession  of 
penitence  and  faith,  and  of  his  preparation  to  enter  into  the  life, 
worship  and  work  of  the  Christian  Brotherhood.  Such  under- 
standing and  preparation  involves  the  necessity  of  the  Church's 
provision  of  the  convert  with  the  appropriate  definite  initial  in- 
struction. These  anticipations  of  the  occasion  and  need  of  teach- 
ing preparatory  to  baptism  are  confirmed  by  the  facts  of  the 
early  converts'  developed  faith  and  high  plane  of  Christian  knowl- 
edge and  morality,  which  are  recognizable  in  the  Acts  and  Epistles. 
Their  stage  of  Christian  life  and  thought  postulates  a  completer 
and  more  definite  instruction  than  the  initial  gospel  preaching. 

^Der  Katechismus  der  Urchristenheit,  1903;  Das  Evangelium  Christi,  1905; 
Die  beiden  Wegen  und  das  Aposteldekret,  1906;  Die  Didache  des  Judenthums 
und  der  Urchristenheit,  1908. 


106    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

No  doubt  such  instruction  was  constantly  given  in  the  Church 
services,  where  both  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  cp.  Acts  20,  35; 
II  Peter  3,  2,  and  also  the  ways  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  I  Cor.  4, 
17,  were  called  to  remembrance  and  made  the  basis  for  doctrinal 
instruction  and  prophetic  exhortation.  But  the  New  Testament 
data  point  in  addition  to  the  earlier  instruction  preparing  the 
convert  for  baptism  and  for  fellowship  in  this  church  worship. 
We  should  also  expect  such  preparation  in  the  Apostolic  Age 
from  the  references  to  it  in  the  second  century.  The  Didache 
enjoins  at  7,  1:  **  Baptize,  having  first  recited  all  these  things," 
i.  e.f  Chapters  1  to  6  containing  the  Two  Ways.  Justin  reports 
in  I  Apology  61:  Those  to  be  admitted  to  baptism  are  *as  many 
as  are  persuaded  and  believe  to  be  true,  the  things  taught  and 
said  by  us,  and  who  pledge  themselves  to  be  able  to  live  in  ac- 
cordance with  them."  ^  In  Chapter  65  the  issue  of  this -instruction 
is  worthy  moral  conduct  and  guardianship  of  the  things  com- 
manded. As  Holtzmann  observes,  p.  65,  op.  cit,  the  contents  of 
this  instruction  are  most  fittingly  constructed  from  the  teachings 
of  Christ,  which  are  recalled  in  the  Apology,  Chaps.  14  to  17.  It 
should  moreover  be  noticed  that  in  Justin's  sunmiary  presenta- 
tion of  the  Christian  teaching,  the  moral  precepts  of  Chaps.  14  to 
17  are  preceded  in  Chap.  13  by  teaching  concerning  the  true  God 
and  his  Son  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate,  and  the  Prophetic 
Spirit;  and  are  followed  in  Chaps.  18  to  20  by  teaching  concern- 
ing topics  in  eschatology. 

In  the  New  Testament  Age  the  references  to  the  instruction 
of  converts  before  baptism  are  for  the  most  part  in  the  brief  sum- 
maries alluding  to  the  beginnings  of  their  Christian  life.  There 
are  besides  seven  instances  in  six  passages  of  the  use  of  the  word 
KaTTjx^o^.  In  four  cases  it  is  used  in  connection  with  elementary 
religious  instruction:  Rom.  2,  18,  the  Jews'  religious  position  and 
knowledge  rests  on  the  fact  of  their  fundamental  instruction  out 
of  the  Law,  KaTrjxovfxevos  Ik  tov  vbfiov;  Acts  18,  25,  ApoUos,  with 
John's  baptism  had  received  elementary  instruction  in  the  Way 
of  the  Lord,  Karrjx'niJ'^^os  rijv  dbdv  tov  Kvplov,  which  in  vs.  26  had 

""Oo-Ot    SlV   TTtlGdCiGl   Kol    TTiaTthwdlV  6X1)61)  TttOra    TO.    v<t>'   i)ixwv 

dt,BaaK6iJLeva  Kal  \ey6nepa  elyai,  Kal  ^lovv  ourwj  dvvaadat,  virKX- 
XviisvTai. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  107 

to  be  expounded  to  him  more  accm-ately;  I  Cor.  14,  19,  the  sim- 
plest form  of  speech  with  the  miderstanding  for  the  purpose  of 
elementary  instruction,  IVa  Kal  aWovs  KaTrjxn(^o},  is  contrasted  with 
the  alleged  highest  form  of  speaking  with  tongues:  Gal.  6,  6,  the 
rule  that  he  that  is  taught  in  the  word,  6  KaTrjxovfjievos  t6p 
\6yov,  is  to  communicate  unto  him  that  teaches,  r^j  KaTrjxovvri, 
in  all  good  things,  is  found  to  follow  an  exhortation,  5,  13  if., 
which  puts  them  in  remembrance  of  Paul's  ways  which  are  in 
Christ. 

The  instruction  alluded  to  in  these  passages  does  not  therefore 
refer  as  Zahn  holds,  Ev.  Lukas,  p.  58;  Galaterbrief,  p.  272,  to 
"all  instruction  within  the  congregation  (alle  innergemeindliche 
Unterweisung),"  but  with  A.  Seeberg,  Kat.  d.  Urchristenheit  p. 
269  f.,  to  an  instruction  which  catechumens  received  in  preparation 
for  baptism.  The  word  which  is  taught  is  as  in  Heb.  6,  1 :  tov  Ttjs 
apxvs  TOV  xpiO"roO  \6yov.  The  "communication,"  Gal.  6,  6,  in  all 
good  things,  i.  e.,  material  benefits,  unto  the  teacher  of  spiritual 
things,  is  the  same  rule  as  in  I  Cor.  9,  7-14;  Rom.  15,  27;  and 
Mtw.  10,  10  f. 

The  word  KaT7jx^<*^  is  found  again  in  Acts  21,  21  and  24  with- 
out this  technical  reference  to  elementary  religious  instruction. 
St.  James  informs  St.  Paul  on  his  final  visit  to  Jerusalem,  that 
the  Jewish  Christians  are  "taught  concerning  him,"  KaTujxv^wav 
Trepl  aov,  that  Jie  teaches  to  Jews  apostasy  from  Moses.     Zahn 
insists,  Introd.,  Ill,  82,  that  the  word  means  here  merely  "informed, 
have  heard  a  report  or  rumor;"  and  that  it  has  therefore  the  same 
meaning  in  Luke  1,  4.    But  the  word  in  itself  can  here  have  equally 
its  usual  meaning  in  the  New  Testament:  to  teach,  to  instruct. 
The  choice  of  it  rather  than  any  other  of  the  numerous  words  for 
informing,  fits  the  situation  and  the  speaker  perfectly.     St.  James, 
using  this  word,  warns  St.  Paul  of  the  deliberate  and  constant 
attack  upon  him  by  Judaizers  and  Jews,  in  the  form  of  this  de- 
famatory teaching  concerning  him.     On  the  same  page,  vs.  27, 
Jews  of  Asia  are  its  teachers.    In  vs.  28  we  have  its  formulation: 
This  is  the  man  who  teacheth  the  people,  etc.    Here  is  more  than 
report  and  information.     It  is  a  settled,  deliberately  inculcated 
teaching  concerning  him,  as  a  method  of  polemic. 

This  use  of  the  word  by  Luke  in  Acts,  does  not  therefore  offer 
any  support  for  Zahn's  denial  that  Luke  1,  4  refers  to  the  cate- 


108    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

chetical  instruction  given  to  Theophilus.  The  use  of  the  title 
"most  excellent"  has  convinced  Zahn  that  Theophilus  is  still 
a  heathen.  The  word  KaT-nxvOvs  cannot  therefore  mean  "been 
instructed,"  but  only  that  many  of  the  narratives  related  in 
Christian  circles  had  come  to  his  ears  and  had  interested  him. 
But  they  were  so  fragmentary  and  marvelous  that  an  attitude  of 
doubt  as  to  their  reliability  seemed  to  be  demanded  of  him. 
Opposed  to  this  conception  is  both  the  general  character  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  special  features  of  its  preface.  The  book  contains 
too  much  that  has  no  direct  relation  to  the  alleged  purpose  of 
convincing  Theophilus;  and  too  much  that  assumes  the  interest 
and  knowledge  of  a  Christian  reader.  On  the  other  hand,  it  lacks 
several  of  the  lines  of  apology  foimd  in  the  Acts;  although  in 
Zahn's  view  Theophilus  is  a  Christian  when  the  Acts  were  sent 
to  him.  In  the  preface,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason,  for  mention 
to  a  heathen  of  earlier  Gospel  writings.  In  vs.  1  and  2,  "us" 
would  naturally  suggest  a  Christian  reader.  If  Theophilus  is  still  a 
heathen  in  doubt,  the  writer  would  need  to  prove  the  credibility 
of  the  eye-witnesses  and  ministers  of  the  word.  But  the  aim  of 
the  Evangelist  is  not  to  win  a  heathen  but  to  establish  a  Christian 
in  the  faith  which  he  professed  in  baptism  after  his  preparatory 
instruction  in  the  logoi  of  which  this  consisted.  Their  irrefragable 
certainty,  d(7'<^clXcta,  will  be  established  upon  the  words  and  deeds 
of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Luke  1,  4  refers  therefore  to  a  catechesis  on 
several  more  or  less  fixed  topics,  and  not  as  Zahn  claims  to  casual 
reports  of  some  incidents  in  Christ's  life. 

This  view  is  supported  by  an  examination  of  the  relative  clause 
in  vs.  4.    The  usual  resolutions  of  the  attraction  are: 

1.  k(T<i)k\tiav  irepl  tcov  \6y(t)v  wepl  o)v  KarrjX'fi^V^ 

2.  6.a<f)6.\e(,av  irepl  tCsv  Xbyosv  oOs  KaTrjxi^V^ 

3.  6.<T<i>a\€iav  tcjv  X67COV  T€pl  S)v  KaTrjxv^V^ 

That  is,  1.  'Certainty  concerning  the  words  concerning  which 
thou  wast  instructed';  or,  2.  'certainty  concerning  the  words 
wherein  thou  wast  instructed';  or  3.  'certainty  of  the  words  con- 
cerning which  thou  wast  instructed.'  Against  the  first  and  second 
resolutions  is  the  fact  that,  with  Zahn,  we  should  expect  'the 
certainty'  to  be  defined  by  'the  words*  directly,  rather  than  by 
a  certainty  'concerning  the  Words.'    The  first  part  of  the  third 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  109 

resolution  is  therefore  probably  correct.  But  the  question  of  the 
meaning  of  the  relative  clause  remains.  Zahn  assumes  that  it 
refers  simply  to  the  antecedent  'words/  with  the  meaning:  the 
certainty  of  the  words  concerning  which  you  have  heard.  Yet  as 
in  other  New  Testament  passages  /carryx^w  points  to  instruction, 
and  since  the  word  is  not  used  with  the  genitive  of  things,  this 
view  is  inadequate. 

One  other  resource  remains:  to  combine  the  second  and  third 
resolutions,  by  regarding  S)v  as  a  case  of  the  frequent  assimilation 
to  an  omitted  antecedent  and  resolving  it  as  in  the  second  view: 
ka<i}a\€iav  rdv  \6y(iiv  irepl  [ttolvtcoj/  or  'Ir^cov]  ovs  KaTrjxv^V^'  The 
meaning  in  this  case  would  be:  the  certainty  of  the  logoi,  the  topics 
entitled  'concerning'  such  and  such  matters,  in  which  he  had 
been  instructed  in  the  catechesis.  In  support  of  this  view  is 
Luke's  form  of  expression  in  Acts  1,1:  \6yov  irepl  iravTiav  Siv  Jesus 
did  and  taught.  And  the  relative  Siv  is  seen  to  refer  not  to  X670S 
as  its  antecedent,  but  to  ttolvtcov;  thus  corresponding  tu  the  resolu- 
tion here  proposed.  In  a  similar  summary,  Acts  22,  10,  we  have 
corresponding  to  \6yoL,  \d\rjdrj<T€Tai  Trepl  ttclvtcov  S)v  TeTaKTal  aoi, 
TTOLTJcrai,.  It  may  also  be  noticed  in  Acts  18,  25  that  Apollos  being 
himself  KaTqxny'^vos  Trjv  686v  tov  Kvpiov,  was  able  to  speak  and 
teach  TCI  irepl  tov  'Irjaov.  Further  support  of  this  view  is  to  found 
in  the  fact  that  in  Acts  there  are  about  a  score  of  instances  where 
the  topics  of  initial  instruction  are  referred  to  under  the  title 
'irepV  etc.  The  same  use  appears  in  the  Didache:  6,  3;  7,  1;  9,  1. 
In  I  Cor.  the  subjects  of  their  letter  and  of  the  Apostle's  instruc- 
tions are  six  times  introduced  by  the  same  formula.  There  seems 
therefore  to  be  sufficient  reason  for  believing  that  in  the  phrase 
irepl  S)v  KaTrjxv^VS  \6ycov,  Luke  is  making  a  summary  reference 
to  the  detailed  topics  of  a  preparatory  instruction. 

Besides  the  use  of  this  word  Karrjx^oj  and  the  references  to  topics 
of  preparatory  instruction,  there  are  moreover  frequent  summaries 
alluding  to  the  initial  steps  in  Christian  life,  which  include  a  ref- 
erence to  an  instruction  which  is  distinct  from  evangelization  and 
from  the  later  teaching  in  the  Church  services.^  In  II  Thess.  2, 
13  f.  the  reminder  of  the  readers'  experiences  at  conversion,  is 
made  the  basis  of  the  appeal  to  *  stand  fast  and  hold  the  traditions 
which  ye  were  taught  whether  by  word  or  by  epistle  of  ours.'  That 
*  Cp.  Seeberg,  Katechismus:  pp.  42,  46,  169,  212,  249,  etc. 


no    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

he  has  here  in  mind  teaching  preparatory  to  entrance  upon  the 
Christian  life,  may  be  concluded  from  the  teaching  in  his  first 
Epistle  to  them.  For  in  I  Thess.  4, 1  to  5,  22,  he  repeats  and  in- 
cludes a  number  of  definite  topics  of  this  initial  instruction. 

In  Romans  6, 17,  the  readers'  obedience  to  'that  form  or  pattern 
of  teaching,  tvttos  didaxv^,  whereunto  they  were  delivered,'  is 
viewed  in  the  context  as  beginning  with  their  renunciation  of  sin 
and  with  their  emancipation  from  it;  and  in  the  verse  itself,  it  is 
indicated  that  the  norm  of  teaching  included  ethical  instruction. 
Rom.  16,  17  ff.,  also  points  to  this  fundamental  moral  teaching 
as  the  norm  they  learned,  Trjv  8L8axr)v  v^  vfiels  ifxadire,  and  which 
naturally  they  learned  upon  their  admission  to  baptism.  I  Cor.  6, 
9  ff.  contains  a  direct  reference  to  baptism,  vs.  11,  after  knowledge 
gained,  vs.  9,  concerning  the  list  of  sins  which  exclude  from  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  vs.  9,  10.  The  Colossians,  2,  6,  7,  -are  likewise 
to  walk  in  Christ  as  they  were  taught,  Kadcjs  eBL8ax6r)Te,  when 
they  accepted  the  Christ,  even  Jesus  the  Lord.  The  parallel 
section  in  Ephesians  4,  17  ff.  points  also  to  initial  teaching.  An- 
tecedent to  their  regeneration,  vs.  23,  24,  there  was  an  instruction, 
vs.  20,  which  included  learning  the  Christ  by  hearing  His  message 
in  the  preaching  and  being  taught  that  He  is  in  truth  in  Jesus. 
Rohmson,  Ephes.y  p.  190,  prefers  Hhat  truth  is  found  in  the  per- 
son of  Jesus  who  is  truth ' ;  though  he  admits  the  above  interpreta- 
tion, reading  dXr^^et^.  And  also  moral  teaching,  vs.  22  ff.,  con- 
cerning putting  off  the  old  man  and  the  former  sinful  way  of  life, 
and  putting  on  the  new  man  created  in  righteousness  and  holiness 
of  the  truth. ^ 

Besides  these  allusions  in  the  Pauline  Epistles,  similar  indica- 
tions of  this  initial  teaching  appear  in  later  New  Testament  Books. 
In  Mtw.  28,  19,  disciples  are  made  by  baptism,  with  instruction 
'to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you.*  Since 
the  converts  at  Pentecost  continued  stedfastly  in  the  Apostles' 
Teaching  and  in  the  Fellowship,  the  Breaking  of  Bread  and  the 
Prayers,  Acts  2,  42,  it  is  at  least  presumable  that  this  5t5axi)  twv 
aTroaT6\o)v  was  given  them  at  their  admission  into  the  Fellowship. 
'The  rudiments  of  the  first  principles  of  the  oracles  of  God,' 
Hbws.  5,  12,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  first  principles  of  Christ, 

'Schenkel,  quoted  by  Holtzmann,  finds  presupposed  in  this  passage  'in- 
troductory catechetical  instruction.' 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  111 

Hbws.  6,  are  found  in  the  context,  5,  12  to  6,  5,  to  refer  to  instruc- 
tion preparatory  to  baptism.  A.  B.  Davidson,  Hebrews,  p.  118 
finds  that  'the  subjects  are  enumerated  in  the  natural  order  in 
which  they  would  be  brought  before  men's  minds,  whether  in 
preaching  or  catechetical  instruction.'  The  allusions  to  such 
catechetical  instruction  are  presented  in  detail  by  A.  Seeberg, 
Der  Brief  an  die  Hehrder,  1912,  pp.  59  to  65. 

It  may  be  urged  against  this  view  of  an  instruction  between 
conversion  and  baptism,  that  if  its  general  contents  be  such  as 
in  Hbws.  6,  1,  the  Jews  would  have  had  no  need  for  it:  they  already 
beUeved  the  six  fundamentals  here  mentioned.  But  as  Peake 
remarks,  Hebrews,  pp.  14,  141,  'so  far  as  these  fundamentals  were 
present  in  Judaism,  the  word  of  the  beginning  of  Christ  (refers) 
to  the  specifically  Christian  presentation  of  them.  No  doctrine  of 
Judaism  can  be  simply  taken  over  into  Christianity.  It  is  trans- 
formed in  the  process,  and  therefore  it  was  especially  necessary 
that  Jews  who  became  Christians  should  be  taught  to  re-interpret 
their  old  doctrines  from  their  higher  point  of  view.'  It  may 
further  be  urged  that  in  several  cases  in  the  Acts,  baptism  fol- 
lowed immediately  upon  conversion.  It  is  a  fact  that  in  the  ten 
cases  of  baptism  in  Acts,  the  promptness  of  baptism  after  con- 
version is  stated  in  five  cases:  the  3,000  converts  on  Pentecost, 
the  Eunuch,  Saul,  Comehus  and  the  Jailer  at  PhiUppi.  In  this 
last  case,  certainly,  t^  promptness  is  emphasized :  '  He  took  them 
the  same  hom-  of  the  night  and  washed  their  stripes,  and  was 
baptized  he  and  all  his  immediately,'  Acts  16,  33. 

We  notice,  however,  in  all  these  five  cases  that  there  are  also 
recorded  special  facts  connected  with  their  conversion.  The  3,000 
converts  listen  to  Peter's  sermon  under  the  initial  impression  of 
the  gift  of  tongues.  Saul  and  CorneHus  have  already  received 
heavenly  visions.  The  Jailer  has  become  receptive  for  St.  Paul's 
preaching  of  salvation  by  a  conviction  of  supernatural  events 
connected  with  the  Apostle's  imprisonment.  Philip  has  been 
impelled  to  preach  to  the  Eunuch  by  an  Angel  of  the  Lord  and 
by  the  Spirit.  Peter  has  likewise  been  sent  to  Cornelius  by  a 
virion  and  the  Spirit's  command;  while  Ananias'  divine  com- 
mission in  his  vision,  evidently  included  the  baptism  of  Saul, 
Acts  9, 15  ff .,  22, 16.  This  element  of  a  special  divine  manifestation 
in  these  instances  of  conversion,  and  of  divine  indication  in  some 


112    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

of  these  cases  of  their  preparation  for  admission  to  the  Church, 
is  related  to  a  second  fact  in  all  these  cases:  the  completeness 
and  intensity  of  their  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  preach- 
ing. This  centered  aroimd  the  proclamation  that  Jesus  was 
Christ  and  Lord,  with  indications  of  the  several  lines  of  witness, 
which  would  be  developed  in  varying  amount  of  detail.  Faith 
in  this  proclamation  involved  obedience  to  the  Gospel  call  to 
repentance  in  view  of  the  impending  messianic  judgment;  and  to 
works  worthy  of  repentance,  which  were  inspired  by  the  Gospel 
offer  of  the  hope  of  salvation,  which  was  pledged  now  in  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit  as  an  earnest  of  the  consummation  of  salvation  on 
the  Lord's  return  in  glory.  In  the  degree  therefore  of  the  in- 
tensity of  the  immediate  conviction  of  faith  in  Jesus,  would  be 
the  degree  of  the  prompt  and  clear-sighted  acceptance  of  these 
necessary  terms  of  admission  to  baptism. 

Further,  in  three  if  not  four  of  these  cases  of  prompt  baptism, 
the  converts  had  already  a  large  measure  of  acquaintance  with  the 
essential  contents  of  initial  Christian  instruction,  as  far  as  we  can 
reconstruct  it.  Acquaintance  with  the  ministry  and  self-revelation 
of  Jesus  on  the  part  of  the  converts  at  Pentecost  is  definitely 
asserted  by  Peter,  Acts  2,  22.  He  makes  the  same  assumption  in 
the  case  of  Cornelius,  Acts  10,  36.  Saul  had  full  opportunity  and 
occasion  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  beliefs  and  admission  rite  of 
the  Christians  whom  he  persecuted  for  their  beliefs.  It  would  be 
strange  if  the  Eunuch  returning  from  Jerusalem  in  the  days  of  the 
persecution  upon  the  death  of  Stephen,  had  not  become  acquainted 
with  the  Christian  movement.  All  of  these  men,  Jews  and  God- 
fearers,  were  besides  familiar  with  the  moral  teachings  of  the 
Two  Ways  and  with  the  messianic  hope  and  current  eschatology.* 

In  such  cases,  a  large  general  acquaintance  with  the  topics  of 
preparatory  instruction  actually  preceded  conversion.  The 
awakening  of  personal  faith  would  therefore  make  them  quickly 
responsive  to  an  instruction  concerning  specifically  Christian 
beliefs,  practices  and  hope,  preparatory  to  their  definite  profession 
in  baptism.   In  the  cases  of  the  Eunuch  and  the  Jailer,  indisputably 

•  Alford  on  Acts  2,  41  and  Stokes,  ActSy  p.  138,  deny  that  at  this  period 
there  was  any  preparatory  training  or  instruction  in  doctrine;  and  Alford 
approves  Neander's  view  that  the  seeds  of  the  later  Judaizing  form  of  Chris- 
tianity were  brought  by  many  of  these  uninstructed  converts  of  Pentecost. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  113 

baptism  followed  immediately  on  conversion.  The  spiritual 
emergency  demanded  their  prompt  admission  into  the  Church. 
But  the  principle  of  definite  preparatory  instruction  could  still  be 
acted  upon  in  these  special  instances  by  incorporating  its  essential 
features  in  the  preaching.  That  the  preaching  of  Philip,  Acts  8,  35, 
included  an  explanation  of  baptism  is  revealed  in  the  Eunuch's 
question:  Here  is  water,  what  hinders  me  to  be  baptized?  Paul 
too  at  PhiHppi  first  answers  the  Jailer's  question  "what  must  I  do 
to  be  saved"  by  repeating  the  baptismal  profession.  Acts  16,  31, 
''Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus,"  cp.  Rom.  10,  9.10,  and  then  spoke 
unto  him  the  word  of  the  Lord.  His  immediate,  irapaxprjf^o., 
baptism,  and  the  Eunuch's  desire  for  immediate  baptism,  seem  to 
be  recorded  as  an  evidence  of  the  thoroughly  awakened  positive 
faith  of  these  converts,  which  included  prompt  acceptance  of  all 
terms  of  admission  to  baptism  that  were  presented  to  them  in  the 
preaching  or  in  connection  with  it. 

All  of  Luke's  references  in  the  Acts  to  baptism  assume  his 
readers'  famiharity  with  the  rite.  He  has  in  no  case  described  it, 
its  mode  or  its  ritual.  It  is  not  then  strange  that  in  his  compressed 
accounts  and  references,  he  should  omit  the  definite  catechesis 
which  prepared  for  the  ceremony.  His  direct  interest  in  all  his 
summary  references  to  baptism  is  in  the  conversion  of  those 
baptized ;  in  their  definite  profession  of  faith ;  and  in  their  entrance 
into  the  Christian  f^owship.  His  passing  over  the  intermediate 
steps  between  "they  believed  and  were  baptized"  is  therefore 
entirely  consistent  with  the  existence  of  a  preparatory  instruction 
as  the  normal  rule.  Indeed  in  some  of  Luke's  references,  a  de- 
tailed study  would  disclose  intimations  of  this  instruction.  At 
Pentecost  upon  the  conclusion  of  the  sermon,  those  who  "were 
pricked  in  their  heart"  and  ask  what  shall  we  do,  receive  in  vss. 
38  f .  a  supplementary  instruction  concerning  baptism  as  related  to 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  to  penitent  renunciation  of  the  work  of  dark- 
ness and  to  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  as  a  pledge  of  the  hoped  for  mes- 
sianic salvation.  To  this  instruction  there  are  added,  vs.  40,  many 
other  words  of  solemn  charge  and  exhortation,  before  their  bap- 
tism in  vs.  41.  The  fact,  in  vs.  42,  of  their  adherence  to  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Apostles  and  to  the  Fellowship,  the  Breaking  of  Bread 
and  the  Prayers,  more  naturally  points  to  stedfastness  in  instruc- 
tion they  had  received  at  the  outset,  than  to  addiction  to  later 


114    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

doctrinal  instruction  in  the  faith  they  had  professed.  CorneUus' 
reception  of  the  Spirit  proved  his  possession  of  the  qualifications 
for  baptism  in  which  the  Spirit  was  given.  Yet  the  fact,  Acts  10, 
48,  that  Peter  did  not  himself  forthwith  baptize  him,  which  would 
be  a  matter  of  a  few  moments,  but  instead  gave  directions,  irpoai- 
Taj€,  to  some  others  to  baptize  him,  suggests  that  the  delay  before 
baptism  may  have  been  connected  with  such  instruction  as  was 
necessary  for  the  observance  of  the  primitive  rite.  In  the  case  of 
Paul,  I  Cor.  15,  1  ff.  and  11,  23  if.,  refer  to  his  own  instruction  in 
the  Christian  tradition  concerning  the  baptismal  formula  and  the 
Lord's  Supper.  The  two  compressed  accounts  of  his  baptism  in 
Acts  9  and  22,  with  their  references  to  several  definite  features  of 
that  rite,  imply  knowledge  of  the  professions  involved.  With 
much  or  almost  all  of  this,  St.  Paul  could  be  already  acquainted. 
His  spiritual  experience  at  Christ's  appearance  to  him.  led  directly 
to  his  personal  acceptance  of  it  as  he  knew  of  it,  and  as  any  sup- 
plementary details  of  this  Christian  tradition  were  delivered  to 
him  for  profession  in  baptism. 

In  proceeding  next  to  the  consideration  of  the  range  of  subjects 
in  this  initial  instruction,  we  are  concerned  here  only  with  the 
general  results  of  investigation  of  the  primitive  Christian  cate- 
chesis  based  on  the  New  Testament  indications  and  their  relation 
to  earlier  Jewish  instructions  and  to  the  later  Christian  catechetical 
Hterature.  The  New  Testament  instruction  seems  to  have  been  on 
three  fundamental  subjects  and  probably  on  two  supplementary 
topics  concerning  participation  in  the  corporate  Christian  life  after 
baptism.  The  pubHcation  of  the  Didache  led  to  a  recognition  that 
it  pointed  to  a  similar  type  of  instruction  in  the  New  Testament 
Age;  and  also  that  it  was  based  on  an  earUer  Jewish  instruction  for 
proselytes.  Bemays  in  his  classic  monograph,  '  Uher  das  Pho- 
kylideische  Gedicht/  1856,  had  already  shown  that  the  Greek 
hexameter  poem  of  Pseudo-Phokylides  was  a  Jewish  work  of  moral 
instruction  for  heathen.  Klein  ^  names  it,  'the  oldest  catechism 
for  the  heathen.'  Its  parallels  to  the  Didache  are  listed  by  Seeberg 
in  Die  beiden  Wege,  pp.  25  to  31;  and  parallelisms  between  the 
Didache,  the  Sibylline  Books  and  Phokylides  are  presented  by 
J.  R.  Harris,  The  Teaching  of  the  Apostles,  pp.  40  to  47.    Klein  adds 

'  G.  Klein,  Der  Aelteate  ChriaUiche  Katechiamua  und  die  JUdische  Propaganda 
LUeraiur,  1909. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  115 

parallels  to  the  Palestinian  Derech  Erez  literature,  pp.  150  to  153. 
Following  Bernays,  he  holds  that  the  material  for  PhokyUdes  and 
similar  works  was  gathered  principally  from  Leviticus,  Chapters 
17  to  20;  but  maintains  as  his  special  thesis  that  the  primitive 
Jewish  Didache  was  a  tractate  of  the  Derech  Erez  hterature, 
p.  VII,  whose  subject  he  at  length  identifies,  p.  63,  with  Natural 
Religion.  Schiirer,  History  of  the  Jewish  People,  etc.,  II,  vol.  3, 
p.  248  ff.,  gives  in  full  the  history  of  the  literature  of  Jewish  propa- 
ganda, instruction,  apology  and  polemic,  and  concludes  that  its 
fixed  type  consists  of  teaching  concerning  Jewish  monotheism, 
morals  and  eschatology. 

In  the  Didache  Christian  monotheism  is  assumed.  After  the 
moral  instruction  in  the  Two  Ways  of  Chapters  1  to  6,  follows 
teaching  in  Chapters  7  to  10  on  the  celebration  of  the  two  sacra- 
ments, on  fasting  and  prayer;  in  Chapters  11  to  15  on  the  ministry, 
worship  and  church  ahns ;  concluding  with  the  chapter  on  the  last 
things.^  Hamack  in  Hauck,  P.  R.  E.,  1.724,  records  the  general 
recognition  that  Chapters  1  to  5  and  most  probably  Chapter  6  are 
based  on  an  earlier  Jewish  instruction.  He  grants  also  the  possi- 
bility that  the  Jewish  work  contained  directions  corresponding  to 
the  Christian  directions  as  to  baptism,  prayer,  first  fruits,  etc., 
especially  in  view  of  chapters  8  and  12. 

1.  On  a  type  of  this  proselyte  instruction  with  a  similar  range  of 
topics  treated  from  a  ^ecifically  Christian  standpoint,  the  in- 
struction of  Jewish  converts  preparatory  to  Christian  baptism 
would  seem  to  have  been  based.  First,  corresponding  to  the  sec- 
tion of  teaching  in  the  hellenistic  heathen  propaganda  on  Jewish 
monotheism,  there  would  necessarily  be  detailed  exposition  of  the 
announcement  in  the  Gospel  preaching  that  Jesus  was  Christ,  Son 
of  God  and  Lord.  This  would  be  based  as  in  Christ's  own  training 
of  the  Twelve  on  the  witness  of  the  self-revelation  of  His  Ufe, 
character  and  redemptive  work.  It  would  thus  include  the  com- 
munication of  the  essential  facts  of  Christ's  fife,  ministry,  death 
and  resurrection.  This  exposition  of  the  Gospel  facts  as  reveahng 
Jesus'  Sonship  and  Lordship,  would  be  the  fitting  occasion  for 

8  Harnack,  I.  c,  p.  712,  arranges  the  contents  in  two  or  three  sections.  He 
combines  Chapters  7  to  10  with  the  Two  Ways,  as  containing  the  definite 
church  rites  which  constitute  the  Christian  character  of  the  congregations; 
while  Chapters  11  to  15  contain  directions  for  church  fellowship  and  life. 


116    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

definite  apologia  in  order  to  enlighten  the  catechumen  as  to  the 
true  bearings  of  the  Gospel  facts  and  teachings,  and  to  guard  him 
from  current  slanders  and  attacks  on  the  faith.  The  design  of  this 
first  part  of  the  catechesis  was  to  lead  to  a  clear  profession  of  faith 
in  Jesus,  in  a  baptismal  formula  which  became  the  basis  of  the 
Creed.  A  generation  later,  large  portions  of  this  instruction  relat- 
ing to  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus  were  fixed  in  writing  in  our 
earliest  Gospels  or  their  sources.  The  early  ceremony  of  the 
Traditio  EvangeUorum  to  the  catechumen  at  baptism  *  is  in  keep- 
ing with  this  view  of  definite  initial  instruction  in  the  Gospel  facts. 
The  view  is  further  supported  by  the  consideration  that  on  the  one 
hand  these  facts  could  not  be  given  in  sufficient  detail  in  the 
general  propaganda  preaching;  and  on  the  other  hand,  in  the 
Epistles  they  are  assumed  as  known  and  are  referred  as  having 
been  taught. ^^  So  that  there  remains  only  the  period  between 
conversion  and  baptism  for  the  communication,  necessary  elucida- 
tion and  defense  of  the  Gospel  facts,  in  order  to  a  solemn  profession 
of  faith  in  baptism.  We  can  also  anticipate  that  in  the  later 
written  gospels  addressed  to  believers  already  thus  prepared  for 
the  baptismal  confession  of  faith,  the  apologetic  element  will  not 
be  found  to  be  the  predominant  feature  and  controlling  aim. 
2.  There  was  next,  clearly,  the  need  of  a  full  practical  instruc- 
tion concerning  the  new  life  in  this  Christ,  to  which  they  were 
called.  This  would  expound  the  summons  to  repentance,  to  cease 
from  sin;  no  longer  to  five  to  the  lusts  of  men,  but  to  the  will  of 
God,  I  Peter  4,  2.  In  general  it  was  instruction  as  to  'how  they 
ought  to  walk  and  to  please  God. '  Its  basis  and  framework  was  a 
Christian  adaptation  of  the  Jewish  proselyte  instruction  in  the 
Two  Ways.  We  have  forms  of  this  not  only  in  the  Didache  but  in 
the  pre-Christian  Jewish  propaganda  and  in  early  Christian 
literature.  The  New  Testament,  especially  in  the  hortatory 
sections  of  the  Epistles,  is  full  of  reminders,  detailed  expositions 
and  special  applications  of  this  primitive  moral  instruction,  which 
prepared  the  convert  for  formal  renunciation  of  sin  in  the  baptis- 
mal confession  of  repentance.    The  content  of  this  moral  teaching, 

•J.  Kaunze,  Die  Uebergabe  der  Evangdien  beim  TavfurUerricht,  1909. 

">  Cp.  R.  J.  Knowling,  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  1892;  and  Testimony  of  St. 
Paul  to  Christ,  Lectures  IX  to  XVI,  1905;  and  the  works  referred  to  on 
p.  73. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  117 

in  particular  in  regard  to  his  walk  in  newness  of  life,  is  summed  up 
in  the  statement:  Love  is  the  fulfiUing  of  the  Law. 

3.  There  was  obviously  need  of  a  fuller  instruction  of  the  con- 
vert concerning  the  Christian  transformation  of  the  Jewish  mes- 
sianic Hope  concerning  the  last  things :  as  to  the  consummation  of 
the  promised  salvation  in  the  messianic  Kingdom  at  Christ's 
coming  in  glory;  and  as  to  the  pledge  and  earnest  of  inheritance  in 
the  Kingdom  to  be  received  in  the  gift  of  forgiveness  and  of  the 
Spirit.  This  need  was  met  by  a  third  topic  of  instruction  concern- 
ing the  last  things  and  the  present  appropriation  of  their  essential 
blessings  by  the  Christian  hope  of  glory  and  of  the  full  possession 
of  the  messianic  salvation.  It  would  be  based  on  the  eschatological 
teachings  of  Jesus,  later  recorded  in  the  Gospels.  In  the  Epistles  it 
is  constantly  recalled  in  the  summons  to  patient  hope,  and  in  the 
assurance  that  the  God  of  Hope  is  faithful  and  will  preserve  them  ^ 
blameless  to  the  day  of  Christ.  The  Didache  in  Chapter  16  and 
other  forms  of  instruction  in  early  Christian  literature  Ukewise 
contain  teaching  concerning  these  last  things. 

The  presumption  that  these  topics  would  be  the  leading  features 
of  the  converts'  initial  instruction  is  strengthened  by  the  preva- 
lence in  the  Epistles  of  summaries  of  Christian  life  as  a  life  of  faith, 
love  and  hope.  Thus  in  the  early  I  Thessalonians,  their  Christian 
life  is  summarized  as  the  Apostle  remembers  *how  their  faith  works, 
their  love  toils  and  their  nope  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  endures, ' 
Findlay.  In  the  later  epistle  to  the  Colossians,  Christian  life  is 
still  described  as  faith  in  Christ,  love  to  all  the  saints  and  hope 
which  is  laid  up  for  them  in  heaven.  The  fixed  formulation  of  this 
triad  and  its  constant  recurrence  in  New  Testament  writings  is 
most  naturally  understood  as  a  reference  to  the  three  essential 
professions  in  Christian  baptism,  for  which  the  converts  would 
need  to  be  prepared  by  the  definite  three  fold  instruction  that  has 
been  indicated. 

4.  There  were  doubtless  additional  topics  of  instruction  needed 
as  the  convert  normally  entered  the  new  life  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship: the  nature  and  effect  of  the  baptism  for  which  they  were 
preparing;  and  of  the  Breaking  of  Bread,  in  which  they  would 
share,  as  well  as  the  subject  of  Christian  fellowship  in  the  Church's 
work,  worship  and  discipline.  A.  Seeberg,  Katechismus  der  Ur- 
christenheit,  p.  247,  concludes  that  in  the  ApostoHc  Age  the  cate- 


118    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

chism  included  the  following  topics:  the  Formula  of  Belief;  the 
Ways;  Baptism  and  the  Gift  of  the  Spirit;  the  Lord's  Prayer  and 
a  statement  of  the  words  with  which  Jesus  instituted  the  Lord's 
Supper.  He  holds  that  we  cannot  determine  a  priori  whether  it 
contained  additional  topics;  and  he  also  leaves  undecided  the 
question  whether  the  sections  on  Baptism,  the  gift  of  the  Spirit 
and  the  Lord's  Prayer  formed  independent  topics,  or  were  com- 
bined as  two  or  as  one  subject  of  instruction.  He  further  maintains 
that  the  catechism  consisted  entirely  of  words  of  Christ. 

The  framework  of  the  New  Testament  Epistles  points  to  an 
earlier  instruction  of  the  readers  having  this  general  range  of 
topics.  Their  doctrinal  portion  assumes,  develops  and  applies 
the  original  teaching  concerning  the  person  and  work  of  Christ; 
their  concluding  hortatory  division  develops  the  moral  teaching 
of  the  Ways  by  inculcating  a  walk  in  love  inspired  by  the  Christian 
hope.  Attached  in  varying  methods  to  these  exhortations  are 
references  to  the  Christian  life  as  related  to  corporate  worship 
and  work.  Thus  in  I  Thessalonians,  after  the  first  three  chapters 
concerning  their  faith  in  the  Gospel  preaching  of  Jesus  as  Lord, 
follow  exhortations  concerning  the  moral  walk  in  love,  4,  1  to  12; 
and  concerning  the  state  of  the  Christian  dead  and  other  topics 
of  the  Christian  hope  of  salvation  at  the  Parousia,  4,  13  to  5,  11. 
These  constant  subjects  of  the  Epistles  are  here  followed  by  ex- 
hortations concerning  the  ministry,  5,  12  to  15,  and  worship,  in- 
cluding the  exercise  of  spiritual  gifts,  5,  16  to  21.  In  Hebrews 
also,  the  initial  instruction  included  besides  teaching  of  repentance 
from  the  works  of  the  way  of  death,  of  faith  in  God,  of  the  resur- 
rection and  judgment,  teaching  also  concerning  baptism  and 
laying  on  of  hands,  6,  1  ff.  These  subjects  are  mentioned  as  re- 
lated to  the  initial  steps  of  their  admission  to  the  Church.  That 
this  instruction  contained  additional  topics  may  be  indicated  in 
the  introduction  to  the  concluding  hortatory  division  of  the 
Epistle,  10,  19  ff.,  which  like  the  section  6,  1  ff.  seems  to  be  based 
on  the  framework  of  the  initial  teaching.  After  the  ten  dogmatic 
chapters  on  the  person  and  redemptive  work  of  Christ,  succeed 
exhortations  to  life  within  the  house  of  God  as  related  to  faith 
professed  in  baptism,  to  hope  and  to  the  good  works  of  love,  10, 
19  to  24.  Following  these  is  the  reference,  vs.  25,  to  'our  own 
assembling  together,'  riiv  iirLavvaycjyiiv  ^ourwv,  and  to  mutual 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  119 

exhortations.  The  rest  of  the  Epistle  is  constructed  on  this  frame- 
work: a  chapter  on  faith,  the  11th;  on  the  patience  of  hope  ani- 
mated by  the  issues  of  the  final  judgment  and  awards,  the  12th;  a 
brief  repetition  of  some  of  the  good  works  of  love  from  the  Two 
Ways,  13,  1  to  6;  and  in  vss.  7  to  17  references  to  the  ministry 
and  worship,  which  would  parallel  the  remaining  topic,  'our  own 
assembling'  in  10,  25. 

Besides  the  clear  indications  of  its  definite  range  of  topics  in 
these  and  other  Epistles,  cp.  Eph.  4  ff.  and  Rom.  12  ff.,  there  are 
also  traces  at  least,  in  the  New  Testament  and  later  literature,  of 
the  form  of  the  catechesis.  Naturally  and  even  apart  from  Old 
Testament  precedents  and  Jewish  religious  educational  methods, 
it  would  follow  Christ's  method  of  training  the  Twelve,  in  which 
instruction  by  question  and  answer  played  so  prominent  a  part. 
And  this  method  would  evidently  be  directly  suited  to  guide  the 
thought  of  the  new  converts  concerning  the  fundamental  import 
and  the  bases  of  the  Gospel  truth  they  had  accepted,  and  to  frame 
their  inquiries  for  direction  in  the  new  life  they  entered.  Reflec- 
tions of  this  catechetical  method  appear,  e.  g.,  in  Rev.  7,  13,  where 
one  of  the  elders  anticipates  the  Seer's  questions  and  asks,  'who 
are  these  and  whence  come  they?  and  I  say  unto  him.  My  Lord, 
thou  knowest';  which  is  'a,  confession  of  ignorance  and  an  appeal 
for  information,'  Swete  in  loe:,  who  also  refers  to  Zech.  4,  2  f.  and 
Ezek.  37,  3.  'And  he  said  unto  me,  these  are  they  that  come  out,' 
etc.  And  in  Rom.  10,  9f.,  Paul  in  referring  to  the  baptismal 
profession,  and  probably  to  some  of  its  terms,  passes  into  what 
is  practically  a  catechetical  method  of  discussion,  in  which  also 
the  Old  Testament  Testimonia  are  interwoven.  ^^  Fully  recog- 
nizing the  extremely  conjectural  character  of  any  attempts  at 
definite  construction  of  the  primitive  preparatory  instruction, 
we  shall  offer,  and  for  brevity  in  the  form  of  positive  statement, 
the  following  suggestions  concerning  some  of  its  features. 

The  witness  for  the  catechesis  form  of  instruction  in  matters 
of  faith,  is  the  interrogative  form  of  the  Creed.     We  could  con- 

"  For  the  use  of  the  catechesis  form,  Kara  wevcnv  Kal  awoKpKTLV,  in  Greek 
and  Roman  writers  on  metaphysical  and  ethical  questions,  see  E.  Norden, 
Agnostos  Theos,  101-108,  where  he  also  refers  to  his  article  in  Hermes,  XL, 
1905,  517  fF.,  on  the  literature  of  the  epajrij/xara,  which  were  typical  for  the 


120    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

elude  from  Hbws.  11,  6;  Rom.  3,  30  and  numerous  parallels,  that 
the  instruction  began  with  el  eh  eariv  6  Beds,  the  answer  being 
based  of  course  on  Dty.  6,  4  and  other  Old  Testament  teachings; 
and  after  inquiries  and  replies  as  to  his  nature  and  his  relation  to 
the  world  and  to  man,  followed  the  question  and  answer  concerning 
Christ.  This  the  gloss  in  Acts  8,  37  most  probably  reproduces 
from  the  primitive  catechism,  as  does  also  Rom.  10,  9.  10:  el  iricTTev- 
€is  'If^aovv  elvai  t6v  vlbv  Oeov,  Kvpiov,  xP^<^t^v*  Ii^  order  to  answer 
Tnarexxji  ^f  6X77S  ti}s  Kapdlas,  the  catechumen  was  taught  to. 
wepl  Tov  'Irjaov,  tol  wepl  rrjs  /SacrtXetas  tov  deov,  something  at  least 
wepl  wavTOJV  S)v  rip^aro  6  'Irjaovs  iroielv  re  Kal  didiiaKeLV,  and  nvrj- 
noveveiv  Tdv  \6y(t)v  tov  Kvplov  'Iriaov.  And  he  learned,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Testimonia,  to  examine  the  Scriptures  el  exoi 
raOra  outws:  el  iradrfrds  6  xpto-Tos,  Acts  26,  23;  cp.  also  Mk.  9,  12  ff. ; 
el  wpcoTos  €?  ava(TTaa'eo)s  veKpdv  <^ws  p.^KKei  KarayyeKKeLv  r$  re 
\a(^  Kal  TO ts  edve<TLv;  to  *Ave^r)  tI  eaTiv. 

From  I  Thess.  4,  1,  we  learn  that  the  catechesis  in  fulfillment  of 
the  moral  law  by  love  was  termed  to  ttcos  Set  17/ias  irepnraTe'iv  koI 
api(TKeiv  Seep;  as  in  Ephes.  5,  10,  tI  ecTTiv  evapeaTov  tco  Kuptc*),  and 
vs.  17  as  understanding  tI  t6  diXrjiJLa  tov  Kvplov;  or  as  introductory 
to  the  hortatory  section  of  Romans,  12,  2:  tIto  diKrjua  tov  6eov,  t6 
ayad6v  Kal  ev&petTTov  Kal  TiXeiov.  It  included  of  course  as  its  es- 
sential element,  the  teaching  and  imitation  of  Christ;  cp.  Mtw. 
28,  20;  7,  24  ff.;  John  14, 15;  15,  10.  The  range  of  its  contents  has 
been  suggested  above. 

The  catechesis  on  the  eschatological  hope  appears  to  have  been 
entitled,  wepl  tCjv  xP^^mv  Kal  TOiv  Kaipcov,  I  Thess.  5,  1;  cp.  Acts 
3,  20  f.  Its  direct  dependence,  even  in  form,  on  Christ's  teaching, 
appears,  e.  g.,  in  Acts  1,  6  f.;  Mk.  9,  10  ff.;  as  well  as  in  the  Dis- 
course on  the  last  things.  The  general  character  of  the  questions 
on  this  topic  are  suggested  in  Eph.  1,  18  ff.,  what  is  the  hope  of  his 
calling,  what  the  wealth  of  the  glory  of  his  inheritance  in  the 
saints,  what  the  might  of  his  power  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  in 
which  we  already  share.  Under  this  special  topic  of  the  resurrec- 
tion whose  title  seems  to  be  indicated  in  Mk.  12,  26,  irepl  tS>v 
veKpuiv  6ti  iyelpoPTai,  or  as  in  Mtw.  22,  31  irepl  ttJs  iivaaT&aecJs  tO)v 
veKpCiv,  some  definite  questions  may  be  recognized,  as  in  Acts 
26,  8  el  6  deb%  veKpobs  lyeipei]  I  Cor.  15,  31  ttws  iyelpovTai  ol  veKpol; 
and  elwep  BUaLou  irapa  deco  &vTawodovvai,,  II  Thess.  1,  6.    The 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  121 

general  reply  to  this  last  question  which  is  incorporated  in  the 
next  verses,  repeated  in  Rom.  2,  5-10  and  referred  to  in  Col.  3, 
24;  Eph.  6,  8,  as  well  known,  €156t€s,  is  based  as  before  on  the 
Testimonia  and  on  Christ's  general  teaching  on  the  resurrection, 
cp.  Mk.  12,  24  ff.  and  on  avTaTrbdoais,  Mtw.  16,  27;  Lk.  14,  14; 
cp.  John  5,  29.  The  instruction  in  prayer  while  watching  for 
Christ's  coming:  t6  Beiv  iravTOTe  irpoaevx^crdai  Kal  nij  hKaKelv,  is 
likewise  based  on  Christ's  teaching  in  the  parable  of  the  Unjust 
Judge,  Lk.  17,  1;  and  in  Rom.  8,  26,  another  question  in  the  cate- 
chesis  on  prayer  appears  in  to  tI  irpoaev^coneSa  Kadd  Set.  The 
general  outline  of  the  response  might  probably  be  reconstructed 
from  Eph.  6,  18  f.  and  the  parallels  to  it  in  the  context  of  the 
question  in  Rom.  8,  26.  We  learn  too  from  I  Thess.  3,  3  f.  that 
among  the  earliest  topics  of  instruction  was  that  concerning  the 
dodiJLLOv  TTJs  TTtcrreajs  amid  manifold  tribulations.  In  Acts  14,  22 
this  instruction  seems  to  be  recapitulated  in  the  expression  ort 
5id  TToKhCjv  d\l\l/e(i)v  del  rjixas  eiaeKdelv  eis  Trjv  ^aaiKeiav  Oeov. 

Instruction  as  to  the  new  relationships  of  converts  to  the 
Apostolic  preachers  of  the  Gospel  and  as  to  their  fellowship  in  the 
Christian  brotherhood  in  work,  mutual  service  and  worship,  could 
be  comprehended  in  the  simimary  concerning  Church  order  in 
I  Tim.  3, 15:  ttws  8el  h  oUca  Oeov  ava(TTpe<f)eadaf,.  How  early  and  in 
what  detail  such  teaching  was  given,  would  be  almost  entirely 
conjectural.  Yet  that  at  least  elementary  principles  were  im- 
parted at  an  early  stage  of  the  converts'  -connection  with  the 
Church,  is  suggested  in  Acts  2,  42,  where  the  new  disciples  are 
described  as  continuing  not  only  in  the  Apostles'  didache,  but  in 
the  Koinonia,  Breaking  of  Bread  and  the  Prayers;  and  also  in 
I  Thess.  5,  12-22  where  the  new  converts  of  Thessalonica  can  be 
reminded  of  such  initial  instruction,  in  briefest  allusions.  It  will 
be  observed  that  later  in  the  Pastorals  in  the  dokimasia  for  the 
admission  of  presbyter-bishops  and  widows,  the  catechesis  form 
is  still  apparent.  And  in  matters  of  worship,  not  only  do  the 
interwoven  liturgical  formulae  assume  the  readers'  familiarity 
from  the  first  with  the  Church's  prayers,  psahns,  hymns  and 
spiritual  songs,  but  also  as  Seeberg  has  shown  in  the  the  passage 
already  cited,  the  convert  was  taught  at  baptism  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  words  of  institution  of  the  Holy  Communion. 

Who  were  the  teachers  of  this  preparatory  instruction  is  not 


122    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

definitely  stated.  But  that  it  was  commonly  assigned  by  the 
Apostles  to  their  fellow-laborers  may  be  gathered  from  Acts  10,  48, 
where  Peter,  who  has  been  accompanied  to  Caesarea  by  six  breth- 
ren, ' conamanded  them, '  Trpoaera^ev,  to  be  baptized;  and  from  13,  5 
where  Mark  is  the  vTrrjpiTris  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  on  the  first 
missionary  journey;  though  upon  his  retirement  at  Perga,  Paul 
himseK  gave  this  instruction  in  South  Galatia,  Gal.  5,  21.  On  the 
next  journey  he  had  with  him  Silas  of  Jerusalem,  whom  Zahn  re- 
gards as  chosen  to  communicate  the  Evangelical  tradition  of  the 
Jerusalem  church;  and  who,  in  our  view  of  Acts  15,  28,  as  sum- 
marizing the  moral  teachings  of  the  Christian  didache,  could  also 
as  the  representative  of  that  church  impart  those  teachings.  But 
as  prophet,  Silas  was  more  probably  engaged  in  the  higher  work  of 
preaching  and  exhortation;  especially  since  Paul,  as  soon  as  he  ad- 
vanced to  new  propaganda  work,  took  Timothy  as  helper.  We 
learn  from  I  Cor.  4,  17,  that  Timothy  is  able  to  teach  ''my  ways 
which  are  in  Christ,  even  as  I  teach  everywhere  in  every  church." 
The  elementary  character  of  this  didache  appears,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  in  the  contrast  I  Cor.  14,  19  between  Tongues,  which 
are  assumed  in  Corinth  to  be  the  highest  form  of  utterance,  and  the 
simplest  form,  here  described  as:  'I  had  rather  in  the  church  speak 
five  X67ot,  cp.  Hbws.  6,  1,  with  my  understanding  that  I  may 
Karrjxw^^  others  also.'  Hbws.  5,  12  assumes  that  any  mature 
Christian  of  experience  and  zeal  could  become  a  teacher  of  what  in 
the  context  is  the  elementary  instruction  for  baptism.  Such  was 
the  teaching  of  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  Acts  18,  26,  where  too,  cp. 
also  vs.  27  f.,  it  is  evident  that  Apollos's  teaching  had  a  far  wider 
range.  It  seems  therefore  that  in  the  New  Testament  Age,  this 
instruction  was  not  as  yet  assigned  to  a  special  class  ^^  but  was  a 

"  In  Gal.  6,  6,  6  KaTr)x^v  might  suggest  such  a  speciahzed  oflBce.  But  in 
fact  the  section  is  not  concerned  with  the  special  relations  of  catechumens 
and  catechists,  but  with  generous  support  of  the  clergy.  It  has  been  recalled 
above  that  this  form  of  description  of  disciples  and  clergy  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  concludes  an  exhortation,  5,  13  ff.,  on  topics  of  the  catechesis.  It  may 
further  be  recalled  that  the  duty  of  support  in  return  for  Gospel  instruction  is 
enforced  again  in  I  Cor.  9,  7-14;  and  also  that  the  description  of  this  instruc- 
tion in  Gal.  as  initial  teaching  is  similar  to  the  comparison  of  it  in  I  Cor.  to 
the  initial  plowing,  sowing  and  planting,  as  well  as  to  shepherding.  The  Apos- 
tle's choice  of  GTreiptiV  and  Karrjx^^v  could  express  and  emphasize  the  fact 
that  the  spiritual  life  of  converts  was  a  continuous  growth  of  the  word  of  the 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  123 

function  exercised  in  the  mission  field  at  times  by  Apostle,  Evan- 
gelist or  fellow-laborer;  and  in  local  churches  would  most  natu- 
rally be  a  subordinate  function  of  the  Teacher,  who  with  whatever 
other  duties,  imparted  in  the  services  an  exposition,  development 
and  application  of  the  doctrinal  and  practical  truth  dehvered  in  the 
Gospel  preaching  and  in  the  instruction  preparatory  to  baptism. 

It  may  be  added  that  this  primitive  catechesis  was  not  in 
written  form,  nor  in  one  fixed  form.  Hence  along  with  clear 
indications  of  its  definite  range  of  topics  and  of  compendious  for- 
mulations of  its  controlling  elements,  we  find  throughout  the  New 
Testament  and  in  the  writings  of  the  post-Apostolic  Age,  a  marked 
freedom  in  recalling  it  and  in  developing  its  contents.  It  was 
ultimately  absorbed  by  the  written  Gospels  and  Creeds,  which 
provided  instruction  concerning  matters  of  faith  and  hope;  by  the 
hortatory  sections  of  the  Epistles  concerning  love  and  hope;  and 
by  their  sections  allied  to  the  Pastorals,  as  well  by  the  later  Church 
orders  and  hturgies,  concerned  with  Church  fellowship. 

The  direct  aim  of  the  preparatory  instruction  was  to  lead  the 
convert  to  certitude  of  faith;  to  deepen,  with  the  accompanying 
divine  witness  both  in  the  preaching  and  in  the  ensuing  fuller 
instruction,  his  conviction  that  in  the  Gospel,  salvation  was  offered 
in  the  risen  Jesus,  Son  of  God,  Lord,  Christ.  This  divinely 
effected  result  followed  upon  the^ profession  in  baptism:  a  profes- 
sion involving  a  grateful  devotion  of  faith  in  the  Christ  of  the 
Apostolic  preaching  and  instruction;  a  self-renunciation;  a  new 
view  of  life,  a  new  bent  of  mind;  a  hunger  for  righteousness,  moral 
purity  and  power  inspired  by  hope  of  a  heavenly  inheritance  and  of 
consummated  mystic  union  with  God  in  Christ,  already  pledged  in 
the  gift  of  the  Spirit  in  a  new  life  of  brotherhood  and  common 
fellowship  in  worship,  mutual  service  and  of  consecration  to  the 
work  of  the  world's  redemption. 

2.   THE   CONFIRMATION   OF   FAITH 

In  the  New  Testament  accounts  of  the  genesis  of  faith,  the  result 
of  the  divine  witness  accompanying  the  Apostolic  defense  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  instruction  which  followed  it,  was  that  the  disciples' 

truth  of  the  Gospel  definitively  communicated  and  implanted  in  the  initial 
preaching  and  teaching,  as  the  regenerating  word  of  life.  Such  too  is  the 
thought  of  Col.  I,  5.6,  and  of  I  Pet.  1,  2a-26. 


124    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

faith  reached  at  baptism,  direct  certitude  and  full  assurance.  The 
faithful  are  constantly  referred  to  as  eppi^oinivoi,  TeBeneKosiJLivoL, 
iBpaloi,  an€TaKivrjTOL,  ^e^aiovixevoi,  iv  Tr\r]p(xf)oplq,  Trtcrrecos.^^ 

The  'grace'  of  Paul's  apostolic  office,  so  B.  Weiss,  Phphf., 
p.  58,  in  which  the  Philippians  participate,  is  the  defense  and 
confirmation  of  the  Gospel:  ciTroXoYta  Kal  /SejSatcoo-ts,  Php.  1,  7. 
In  the  context  these  terms  refer  to  his  whole  ministry  of  the  Gospel 
from  the  first  day  of  the  conversion  of  the  Philippians  until  now 
when  he  is  in  bonds;  and  in  this  vs.  7  the  Gospel  preaching  is 
characterized  by  its  presentation  in  the  initial  apologia  of  the 
kerugma  and  by  its  completion  in  the  converts'  bebaiosis:  the 
full  assurance  and  confirmation  of  faith.  Our  present  interest 
in  the  statement  is  that  it  introduces  the  subject  of  the  nature  of 
*the  confirmation  of  faith'  and  its  relation  to  the  defense  of  the 
Gospel  witness  and  call.  The  interpretation  of  the  .terms  and  of 
their  relation  which  has  been  here  briefly  given,  will  be  supported 
by  other  passages.  But  the  famiUar  opposing  views  of  this  pas- 
sage claim  our  notice,  as  they  reveal  the  conflicting  efforts  to  ob- 
tain a  satisfactory  distinction  of  the  terms  when  viewed  simply 
as  two  forms  of  human  proof. 

The  fact  that  the  Apostle  is  in  bonds  awaiting  trial  has  often 
suggested  to  commentators,  and  recently  to  Deissmann,  Bible 
Studies,  p.  108,  a  reference  to  his  defense  and  to  his  vindication 
of  the  Gospel  in  a  judicial  process.  But  the  Gospel  was  not  on 
trial  in  Nero's  court.  It  is  possible  that  not  even  Paul  was  put  on 
his  trial  at  this  period,  if  as  Lake  has  again  proposed,  the  Jeru- 

"  Clement  of  Rome,  42,  3,  describes  the  Apostles  as  preaching  the  Gospel, 
'being  fully  assured,  Tr\r]po<l)OprjdlvTes  through  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  confirmed,  Tn(TTit3dlvT€S,  in  the  Word  of  God  with  full  as- 
surance of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Ignatius  addresses  the  Church  in  Philadelphia 
as  'firmly  established,  '^dpao'n^vij,  in  the  concord  of  God,  rejoicing  in  the  pos- 
sion  and  resurrection  without  wavering,  (iStaKptrcos,  being  fully  assured  in 
all  mercy.'  He  describes  its  clergy  as  those  whom  Christ  'estabUshed  in  con- 
firmation,' iaTr]pL^€v  iv  ^e^autxrvvo  by  his  Holy  Spirit.'  The  Smyrnaeans, 
chap.  1,  he  perceived  'are  established  in  faith  immoveable,  KaTtipncrfiivovs  iv 
dxtJ^rcj)  Trtcrret,  being  as  it  were  nailed  on  the  cross  in  flesh  and  spirit;  and 
firmly  grounded,  iihpa<Tp.ivovs,  in  love  in  the  blood  of  Christ;  and  fully  per- 
suaded as  touching  our  Lord,'  viz.,  as  Son  of  David,  Son  of  God,  Virgin  born, 
baptized  by  John,  suffering  under  Pilate  and  risen. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  125 

salem  charges  were  not  pressed  against  him  in  Rome.^^  If  they 
were,  any  apology  of  the  Gospel  such  as  Paul  entered  upon  at 
CiJBsarea,  Acts  26,  24,  would  have  been  silenced  as  it  had  been  by 
Festus's  loud  cry  'Thou  art  mad,'  and  by  Agrippa's  sneer.  Nor 
could  there  have  been  in  the  Roman  court  a  '  vindication '  such  as 
Deissmann  followed  by  G.  C.  Martin  understands.  For  on  the 
suggested  theory  that  the  word  bebaiosis  is  used  in  the  sense  of 
the  Attic  juristic  term  'warranty  of  title,'  it  would  signify  the 
fulfilhnent  of  a  pledged  engagement,  which  as  Deissmann,  p.  108  f . 
shows  would  suit  Paul's  use  of  the  term  in  other  passages  and 
also  in  this  passage  as  we  have  interpreted  it  above;  though  we 
cannot  conceive  any  such  relation  of  the  Gospel  and  its  preacher 
to  the  Roman  tribunal. 

Hence  other  views  range  from  the  restriction  of  the  defense  to 
the  judicial  trial  and  of  the  confirmation  to  preaching  at  Rome, 
to  the  reference  of  both  terms  to  evangeUzation  in  Rome  in  its 
defensive  and  aggressive  character,  and  finally  to  his  gospel 
ministry  in  general,  as  by  Lewin,  St.  Paul,  II,  p.  281.  B.  Weiss 
and  Lightfoot  ^^  are  among  those  who  distinguish  the  terms  as 
positive  and  negative  defense.  The  plausibiUty  of  this  distinc- 
tion is  favored  by  our  familiarity  with  it  in  formal  treatises  on 
apologetics  in  modem  and  ancient  times.  But  it  impHes  an  im- 
probable distinction  of  methods  of  evangeUzation  that  were  un- 
suited  to  the  conditions  of  the  primitive  mission  preaching,  in 
which  according  to  our  records  the  defensive  and  positive  elements 
were  interwoven.  It  also  overlooks  the  fact  that  a  few  verses 
later,  Paul  evidently  includes  in  the  statement  '  I  am  appointed 

14  Interjyreter,  1909,  147  ff.  and  Theol.  Tidjschrift,  1916,  p.  360  ff.  The 
same  view  was  suggested  by  Lewin,  St.  Paul,  II,  281:  290. 

1^  Weiss,  Phpbf.  57,  lists  the  distinctions  between  the  two  words  advocated 
by  the  older  commentators.  He  concludes:  'As  concerns  this  defence  we  can 
think  of  every  kind  of  defence,  official  and  unofficial  in  word  and  course  of 
life,  as  even  the  imprisonment  offered  him  opportunity.  Associated  with 
this  activity  for  the  Gospel,  the  bebaiosis  can  thus  only  describe  an  analogous 
activity  exercised  through  the  word  and  course  of  life;  only  more  positively, 
in  contrast  to  the  former  antithetical  activity  (Meyer).'  Similarly,  J.  B. 
Lightfoot  in  loc.:  'Apologia  implies  the  negative  or  defensive  side  of  the 
Apostle's  preaching,  the  preparatory  process  of  removing  obstacles  and 
prejudices;  bebaiosis  devotes  the  positive  or  aggressive  side,  the  direct  ad- 
vancement and  establishment  of  the  Gospel.  The  two  together  will  thus 
comprise  all  modes  of  preaching  and  extending  the  truth.' 


126    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

for  the  apologia  of  the  Gospel/  vs.  16,  all  forms  both  of  positive 
and  negative  defense,  so  De  Wette.  We  are  thus  left  to  seek  in 
the  bebaiosis  of  vs.  7  neither  a  mere  rhetorical  repetition  of 
apologia  nor  any  special  phase  of  it;  but  a  term  referring  to  the 
distinct  goal  of  apologia:  the  grounding  and  confirming  of  dis- 
ciples who  had  been  won  by  the  apologia  of  the  Gospel  witness 
and  its  call  to  salvation,  in  full  assurance  of  faith.  It  was  there- 
fore most  natural  that  both  terms  should  here  be  employed 
by  him  in  his  comprehensive  description  of  his  ministration 
of  the  Gospel.  Confirmation  and  full  assurance  both  of  the 
truth  he  preached  and  of  the  redemptive  blessings  he  offered 
was  the  direct  aim  of  his  evangelization,  and  it  was  also 
the  basis  of  all  his  subsequent  establishment  and  nurture  of 
his  converts'  Christian  life  and  growth  into  the  fullness  of  the 
Christ. 

For  our  understanding  of  the  character  and  contents  of  this 
confirmation  and  assurance,  it  is  essential  that  we  first  recall  the 
New  Testament  view  of  it.  It  is  a  direct  certitude  not  only  as 
to  the  truth  of  the  revelation  and  redemptive  facts  declared  in  the 
Gospel  preaching,  but  also  as  to  the  fulfillment  in  the  believer  of 
the  promise  of  personal  salvation  based  on  those  redemptive  facts. 
It  is  the  experience  of  the  beUever's  undivided  life  and  whole  per- 
sonality. As  it  is  described  in  Hbws.  6,  4  f.,  where  upon  response 
to  the  preaching  and  instruction  concerning  the  personal  con- 
ditions of  salvation,  the  means  of  entrance  into  it,  and  its  relation 
to  the  ultimate  issues  of  life,  vss.  1.2,  the  converts  received  in 
baptism  their  illumination,  being  turned  from  darkness  to  fight; 
they  then  tasted  the  heavenly  gift  of  forgiveness  and  became 
sharers  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  they  tasted  the  Word  of  God  as  good, 
viz.,  his  word  of  promise  of  inheritance,  cp.  vss.  12.17;  and  as  the 
pledge  and  means  of  realizing  this  hope,  they  tasted  the  powers 
of  the  world  to  come,  in  their  reception  of  the  manifold  gifts  of 
the  Spirit,  Hbws.  2,  4.  Parallel  to  this  direct  certitude  of  salva- 
tion in  the  imdivided  spiritual  experience  of  illumination,  forgive- 
ness and  hope  of  glory  inspired  by  the  indwelUng  Spirit,  is  the 
full  assurance  in  the  experience  of  justification  by  faith  in  Rom.  5, 
1  ff.:  peace  with  God,  introduction  into  the  fife  of  grace  and  an 
exulting  hope  of  glory.  It  was  the  fulfillment  in  the  believer  of 
the  ministry  committed  to  Paul,  Acts  26,  16  ff.:  to  open  their 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  127 

eyes,  that  they  may  turn  from  darkness  to  light  and  from  the 
power  of  Satan  unto  God,  that  they  may  receive  remission  of 
sins  and  an  inheritance  among  them  that  are  sanctified  by  faith 
in  me.  They  were  confirmed,  ^e^atovnevoL,  in  faith.  Col.  2,  7; 
rooted  and  grounded  in  love,  Eph.  4,  17;  they  held  fast  the  hope 
set  before  them  as  an  anchor  sure  and  stedfast,  aafpaXrj  re  Kal 
^e^alav,  Hbws.  6,  18  f.^^  They  had  the  witness  of  the  Spirit 
himself  with  their  spirits  that  they  are  the  children  of  God,  Rom. 
8,  16. 

This  personal  experience  of  salvation  to  which  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  thus  confidently  refer  as  the  possession  of  believers, 
is  the  ^e^alooais  of  the  Gospel;  the  Tr\r}po(popla  of  faith.  While 
necessarily  embracing  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  witness  and 
apologia  of  the  Gospel,  it  is  evidently  more  comprehensive:  a 
direct  certitude  of  the  whole  personality;  an  experience  illuminating 
and  confirming  the  conclusions  of  the  intellect,  and  a  basis  for 
their  development  in  all  the  relations  of  the  new  life  and  new 
world  view.  J.  Weiss  connects  the  relation  of  these  two  modes  of 
knowledge  with  the  PauUne  distinction  between  'knowing  God* 
and  'being  known  of  God'  in  I  Cor.  8,  2  f.;  13,  12;  Gal.  4,  9.  After 
stating,  as  already  cited,  that  'the  mission  preaching  is  not  only 
to  give  instruction  and  to  awaken  conviction  but  is  a  means  to 
prepare  a  way  for  the  supernatural  activity  of  God,'  he  adds: 
'  this  view  often  receives  expression  by  Paul  in  a  very  remarkable 
form.  If  he  speaks  of  'knowing  God,'  the  contrasted  idea,  'being 
known  of  God '  forces  itself  upon  him  as  by  a  compulsion ;  and  in 
Gal.  4,  9  as  in  reality  the  more  appropriate  expression.  Knowing 
God  is  only  possible,  where  God  has  already  known  men.  This 
thought  is  indeed  only  clear,  when  'knowing'  is  here  as  often  in 
the  Old  Testament,  Amos  3,  2;  Jer.  1,  5,  not  merely  a  theoretical 
acquainting  oneself  with  or  knowing  another,  but  an  inclination 
to  him  with  the  will,  a  setting  of  oneself  in  relation  to  him,  a  choos- 
ing of  him,  an  appropriation  of  him;  and  in  the  sphere  of  personal 
religion  even  more:  the  inner  contact  of  one  soul  with  the  soul  of 

^'  In  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  pp.  245,  258,  this  full  assurance  is  like- 
wise viewed  as  a  gift  at  the  entrance  into  the  Christian  life:  "that  they  may 
be  received  into  the  ark  of  Christ's  Church;  and  being  stedfast  in  faith,  joy- 
ful through  hope  and  rooted  in  charity  .  .  .  they  may  come  to  the  land 
of  everlasting  life." 


128    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  other.  The  paradox  of  these  three  PauUne  passages  is  the 
paradox  of  mysticism,  Urchristm.,  p.  187.^^ 

This  confirmation  of  faith  is  always  referred  to  in  the  New 
Testament  as  effected  directly  by  the  Spirit,  to  whose  'demon- 
stration' in  both  preacher  and  hearers  is  ascribed  Ukewise  the 
initial  response  of  faith  in  the  message  as  a  revelation  which  has 
evoked  recognition,  acceptance  and  obedience  by  the  whole  per- 
sonahty.  The  direct  divine  confirmation  of  the  believer  corre- 
sponds both  to  the  New  Testament  record  of  the  genesis  of  his 
faith  and  to  its  teaching  concerning  the  character  of  the  Gospel. 
For  the  essential  characteristic  of  faith  in  the  revelation  of  God 
in  Christ  cannot  be  adequately  accounted  for  as  the  result  of  any 
of  the  factors  into  which  we  can  psychologically  analyze  the 
process  of  the  origin  of  our  convictions  and  beUefs.  It  cannot  be 
explained  as  the  result  of  a  wish  to  beheve.  Both  the  solemn  in- 
terests of  their  souls'  salvation,  and  the  renunciations  and  sacri- 
fices involved  in  the  converts'  baptism,  would  demand  fullest 
conviction  as  to  the  objective  vahdity  of  the  word  of  the  truth  of 
the  Gospel.  Nor  was  it  produced  by  the  argumentative  skill  of 
preachers  or  by  their  impressive  eloquence;  and  not  alone  by  the 
preachers'  own  evident  conviction  of  the  truth  of  their  message 
and  of  the  reaUty  of  their  salvation  and  gift  of  the  Spirit.  The 
mocking  at  it  on  Pentecost,  in  Athens  and  in  Festus's  court 
reveals  its  insufficiency  to  convince  the  hearers  of  the  message 
even  when  given  by  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power 
in  its  preachers.  Nor  was  conviction  and  full  assurance  due  to  the 
compelling  force  of  truth.  Although  three  thousand  were  con- 
verted by  the  Pentecost  sermon,  even  that  number  was  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  pilgrim  hosts  that  heard  the  same  sermon, 
that  were  best  prepared  to  respond  to  it,  and  yet  were  not  con- 
vinced by  it.  Nor  for  the  same  reason  of  constant  rejection  of  the 
Gospel,  can  faith  be  due  to  a  responsive  chord  in  the  human  soul 
which  is  innately  attuned  to  vibrate  in  unison  with  the  tones  of  the 
message  of  God's  redeeming  love,  wherever  those  tones  are  heard. 

A  searching  historical  and  psychological  analysis  of  the  genesis 

"  The  relation  of  the  direct  certitude  of  personal  experience  of  salvation 
by  faith  and  the  historical  and  philosophical  convictions  involved  in  it  are 
discussed  at  length  by  Domer  in  the  introduction  to  his  System  of  Christian 
Faith,  (f  1-14. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  129 

of  the  certitude  of  faith  has  been  made  by  Miiller  in  his  study  of 
the  origin  of  the  personal  Christianity  of  the  PauHne  Churches.^ 
He  cannot  account  for  it  as  the  product  of  human  arguments  and 
persuasions;  or  of  the  believer's  predispositions  to  faith;  or  of 
his  unaided  power  to  apprehend  and  obey  the  message  as  true, 
authoritative  and  divine.  He  therefore  concludes  that  the  certi- 
tude of  faith  postulates  a  divine  factor  and  power  for  its  produc- 
tion. This  result  of  a  scientific  investigation  of  its  genesis  cor- 
responds with  the  claim  of  its  preachers;  and  for  the  reality  of 
such  direct  divine  activity  they  constantly  and  confidently  appeal 
to  the  personal  experience  of  their  converts. 

Nowhere,  however,  is  there  any  suggestion  that  the  certitude 
of  faith  was  divinely  effected  apart  from  the  psychological  laws, 
personal  conditions  and  social  relationships  which  condition  the 
genesis  of  all  knowledge  and  conviction.  The  divine  coopera- 
tion accompanied  each  step  in  the  ministry  leading  to  the  con- 
firmation of  faith.  Souls  were  made  receptive  in  the  initial 
preaching  by  a  divine  method  and  ministry  to  the  personal  life 
and  spiritual  state  of  each  individual,  known  only  by  him  that 
received  it.  Ears,  eyes,  hearts  were  opened;  consciences  were 
awakened,  to  see  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ.  In  the  ministry  of  the  catechesis,  divine  illumination  and 
invigoration  accompanied  the  fiiller  instruction  concerning  the 
person  and  work  of  Christ,  His  commandments  of  love,  His  call 
to  inheritance  in  His  kingdom.  At  baptism,  upon  the  soul's  free 
response  of  faith  in  the  revelation  of  the  Apostolic  witness,  call 
and  teaching,  came  the  divine  gift  of  bebaiosis  and  plerophoria : 
a  direct  certitude  of  a  new  life  in  God  which  rested  upon  the  reality 
of  the  redemptive  facts  and  on  the  fulfillment  of  the  promises 
preached  in  the  witness  and  defense  of  the  Gospel. 

Corresponding  to  this  view  of  the  divine  factor  in  the  genesis  of 
faith  are  the  New  Testament  statements  concerning  the  character 
of  the  Gospel  and  the  method  of  its  preaching.  While  distinctly 
recognizing  both  the  limitations  of  the  human  messengers  and  the 
right  of  their  hearers  to  examine  'whether  these  things  were  so,' 
the  Gospel  message  is  everywhere  regarded  in  the  New  Testament 
as  the  Word  of  God;  not  man's  word  concerning  him,  but  God's 

^'Johannes  Miiller,  Die  Entstehung  des  peradnlichen  Christenthums  der 
patdiniachm  Gemeinden,  1898. 


130    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

own  word:  \6yos  Beov,  subjective  genitive,  cp.  Findlay,  I  Thess. 
2,  13.  This  because  he  sent  it,  Acts  13,  26;  and  those  who  like  the 
Thessalonians  received  it,  2,  13,  received  it  not  as  the  word  of  men, 
but  as  it  truly  is,  the  word,  message  and  call  of  God.  And  defi- 
nitely it  is  the  word  of  salvation  which  God  sent  to  the  sons  of  Israel 
preaching  good  tidings  of  peace  by  Jesus  Christ,  Acts  10,  36.  In 
this  definition  is  included  the  claim  and  recognition  of  a  direct 
divine  activity  in  the  ministry  of  this  word  he  sent;  and  this  claim 
is  continued  in  the  statements  of  the  messengers  of  the  divine  word. 
The  authority  of  Christ's  teaching  rests  on  His  union  with  the 
Father.  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself; 
II  Cor.  5,  19;  God  spoke  in  his  Son,  Heb.  1,  1;  Christ's  own  claim 
at  the  close  of  his  public  ministry  is,  I  spoke  not  from  myself;  but 
the  Father  that  sent  me,  he  hath  given  me  a  commandment,  what 

I  should  say  and  what  I  should  speak,  John  12,  49.  The  authority 
of  the  Apostles'  preaching  rests  also  on  the  activity  of  God  in  and 
through  them.  They  traced  their  conunission  to  God  speaking  in 
the  Son:  as  the  Father  hath  sent  me  even  so  send  I  you,  John  20, 
21.     Having  received  from  God  the  ministry  of  reconciliation, 

II  Cor.  5,  18,  they  as  his  ambassadors  beseech  men,  as  though  God 
were  entreating  by  them,  vs.  20.  They  speak,  II  Cor.  2,  17,  as  of 
God,  in  the  sight  of  God  and  in  Christ;  and  they  speak  in  words 
which  the  Spirit  teaches,  I  Cor.  2,  13. 

The  ministry  of  the  word  was  moreover  accompanied  by  the 
divine  energizing  both  in  the  manifest  spiritual  experience  of  the 
evangelists,  which  has  already  been  considered,  and  also  in  their 
spiritual  gift  of  working  signs  and  wonders.  The  word  of  so  great 
salvation,  Hbws.  2,  3  f.,  having  at  the  first  been  spoken  by  the 
Lord  Christ,  was  confirmed,  ^/SejSaiw^r;  by  the  Apostles  who  heard 
him.  And  the  confirmation  and  certitude  were  effected  because  it 
rested  on  the  authority  of  Christ  in  whom  God  spoke,  and  on  God's 
accompanying  witness  both  by  external  signs,  wonders  and  mani- 
fold powers,  and  by  the  internal  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  according 
to  his  willing.^*    So  too  in  the  Acts:  the  Lord  bore  witness  to  the 

>•  F.  H.  Chase,  Old  Syriac  Element  in  the  Text  of  Codex  Beza,  p.  157,  notes 
the  coincidence  between  Hbws,  2,  3  f.  and  Mk.  16,  19  f.,  which  appears  to 
him  to  confirm  the  verdict  of  the  Markan  section's  antiquity,  as  '  either 
founded  on  language  current  at  a  very  early  period,  or  the  section  itself  at  least 
substantially  was  known  in  the  Apostolic  Age.* 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  131 

word  of  his  grace,  granting  signs  and  wonders  to  be  done  by  the 
Apostles'  hands,  14,  3;  15,  12;  cp.  II  Cor.  12,  12.  Besides  this 
witness,  the  direct  activity  of  God  was  manifested  in  the  whole 
work  of  the  Apostolic  ministry.  Round  about  from  Jerusalem  unto 
Illyricum,  the  Gospel  was  'fully  preached,'  Tr€TrKr]p(aKivai,  or 
'brought  to  full  development,'  because  Christ  wrought  through 
Paul  in  word  and  deed  as  well  as  in  the  power  of  signs  and  wonders. 
His  whole  ministry  was  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Rom. 
15,  19.  He  labored.  Col.  1,  29,  according  to  Christ's  energy  which 
was  operative  in  him  'in  power. '  As  elsewhere  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment these  miracles  and  work  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  are  not 
referred  to  as  proofs  in  substantiation  of  the  doctrines  preached, 
but  as  manifestations  of  the  possession  of  the  Spirit;  as  revelations 
of  the  divine  presence,  purpose  and  power  working  with  them  as 
they  ministered  in  God's  name.^^ 

The  divine  activity,  moreover,  cooperating  with  the  preaching 
of  his  word  through  the  manifold  ministries  and  media  of  ap- 
proach, in  order  to  awaken  and  confirm  faith,  energizes  directly  in 
the  focus  of  our  personality.  His  word,  Heb.  4,  12  f.,  is  living, 
active,  and  therefore  heart  searching;  piercing  to  the  basal  ele- 
ments of  our  nature:  to  the  ultimate  point  of  division  between 
soul  and  spirit  and  physical  nature.  And  it  is  heart  revealing: 
calling  to  judgment  our  inner  life-  of  volitions,   affections  and 

2°Westcott,  The  Gospel  of  Life,  p.  80  and  chap.  7:  Signs  as  a  vehicle  of 
revelation.  The  signs  *  are  not  properly  proofs  of  a  teaching  from  which  they 
are  dissociated,  but  the  teaching  itself  in  a  limited  form  whiqh  appeals  to  men 
through  human  experience.  They  have  a  spiritual  power,  and,  so  far,  they 
are  'spiritually  discerned'  while  the  intellect  prepares  the  way  for  this  dis- 
cernment. .  .  .  They  are  more  properly  in  their  highest  form  the  sub- 
stance than  the  proofs  of  revelation.  According  to  this  view  (of  p.  221)  it  is 
wrong  to  speak  of  miracles  as  being  in  a  primary  sense  proofs  of  a  levelation, 
or  of  Christianity  in  particular.  No  such  claim  is  made  for  them  in  the  N. 
T.  .  .  .  They  were  the  flashings  forth  of  the  more  glorious  Divine  life  when 
an  opening  was  made  for  its  course.'  The  miracles  wrought  by  the  Apostles 
'  were  not  offered  as  proofs  to  the  unbeheving,  but  as  blessings,  and  lessons, 
to  the  beUeving.  They  could  be  accepted  as  real,  and  yet  carry  no  conviction 
of  faith.  On  the  other  hand,  they  undoubtedly  moved  sympathetic  witnesses 
and  hearers;  and  St.  Peter  appeals  to  Christ's  works  of  power  and  love  as 
witnessing  to  the  presence  of  God  with  Him.'  Similarly  Bruce,  The  Miracu- 
lous Element  in  the  Gospels,  chap.  8,  advocates  the  view  that  miracles  'enter 
into  the  very  substance  of  the  revelation,  and  are  not  merely  signs  confirma- 
tory of  its  truth.' 


132    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

reasonings.  Thus  directly  present  at  the  meeting  point  of  every 
element  of  our  personality,  his  living  word  energizes  to  produce  the 
flash  of  conviction  and  direct  certitude  of  the  presence  of  God,  the 
truth  of  God  and  the  redeeming  purpose  and  power  of  God. 

Two  brief  references  of  Paul  to  the  divine  activity  in  the  con- 
firmation of  faith,  will  summarize  the  preceding  statements.  In 
I  Cor.  2,  Iff.,  his  preaching  was  a  declaration  of  the  witness  of  God 
in  Christ,  which  led  to  conviction  not  by  his  persuasive  words  of 
wisdom,  but  by  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power.  And 
equally  his  converts'  faith  was  not  the  product  of  human  wisdom 
and  reasonings,  but  was  '  in  the  power  of  God, '  as  his  living  word 
penetrated  to  the  soul's  depths;  flashed  within  it  the  light  of  God's 
exposure  of  its  real  state,  of  his  hope  for  its  redemption,  of  his 
manifold  witness  in  the  redemptive  facts  of  the  Gospel;  and  evoked 
a  response  of  acceptance  of  its  promise  of  a  personal  experience  of 
salvation. 

The  second  reference,  II  Cor.  1,  18-22,  is  more  specially  con- 
cerned with  this  resulting  personal  certitude  of  faith.  Again, 
vs.  18,  it  rests  on  the  faithfulness  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Gospel. 
For  the  Son  of  God  Christ  Jesus,  as  preached  by  His  apostolic 
messengers  was  not  found  to  be  yea  and  nay:  promise  and  non- 
fulfillment of  promise.  But  in  Him  is  God's  yea :  the  fulfillment  of 
all  the  divine  promises  of  salvation.  Hence  through  Him  and  His 
Gospel  preachers  is  the  Amen:  the  profession  of  the  believers' 
certitude  and  experience  of  salvation  by  the  yea  of  God  in  Christ. 
And  this  Amen  is  to  the  glory  of  God;  for  it  is  He  who  confirms 
into  Christ,  ^e^aicov:  who  effects  their  immediate  full  assurance  of 
faith  in  communion  with  the  certitude  of  the  Apostles  and  all 
saints;  it  is  He  who  has  anointed,  and  sealed  and  has  given  the 
earnest  of  the  Spirit  in  their  hearts. 

In  this  verse  a  reference  to  the  baptismal  rite  is  found  by  one 
group  of  exegetes  in  'anointed, '  as  already  used  of  Christ's  baptism 
in  Acts  10,  38;  and  by  another  group,  in  'sealed.'  It  is  possible 
that  such  a  reference  may  be  intended  by  both  terms.  ^^  In  any 
case  sealing  is  here  combined  with  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  cp.  Eph.  1, 
13;  4,  30,  which  in  the  New  Testament  is  uniformly  connected  with 

"A.  Seeberg,  Catcsm.  d.  Urchristenheit  pp.  226-234,  argues  that  'sealed' 
definitely  refers  to  the  laying  on  of  hands  for  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  in  the  prim- 
itive baptismal  service. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL         133 

baptism.  It  moreover  states  the  means  by  which  God  is  6  jSe- 
^aiCiv.  As  a  seal,  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  a  full  assurance  of  the 
fulfillment  of  the  divine  promises  of  vs.  20.  Definitely  it  is  the 
confirmation  in  believers  of  the  Old  Testament  promise  of  in- 
heritance, messianic  salvation,  gift  of  the  Spirit.  It  rests  upon  the 
immutability  of  His  counsel,  Heb.  6,  17,  shown  to  the  heirs  of  this 
promise  by  two  immutable  things:  by  the  divine  promise  and  by 
the  oath,  which  is  final  ets  jSejSatcocrij/,  vs.  16.  God  therefore  is 
6  ^e^aLCiv  as  Christ,  Rom.  15,  8,  has  been  made  a  minister  of 
circumcision  in  behalf  of  the  truth  of  God,  that  he  might  'confirm* 
the  promises  given  unto  the  fathers.  For  how  many  soever  be  these 
promises,  in  Christ  is  the  Yea.  The  napTvpiov  of  Christ,  I  Cor.  1,  6, 
His  witness  of  the  fulfillment  in  Him  of  these  promises,  was  *  con- 
firmed' unto  believers;  or  as  in  Heb.  2,  S,  the  so  great  salvation, 
having  first  been  spoken  by  Him  was '  confirmed '  unto  them.  And 
it  was  confirmed  and  sealed  unto  them,  vs.  4,  by  the  reception  of  the 
Spirit.  With  this  gift  come,  Gal.  4,  6,  and  its  parallel  Rom.  8,  15  f., 
full  assurance  of  sonship,  including  as  we  saw  in  Rom.  5,  1  f .  pardon 
and  peace  for  the  past,  present  union  with  the  Father  and  an  ex- 
ulting hope  of  glory,  because  of  assurance  of  the  final  consumma- 
tion of  salvation:  if  sons,  then  heirs  of  God,  joint  heirs  with  Christ, 
8,  17. 

Of  this  '  salvation  in  hope, '  8,  24,  the  initial  gift  of  the  Spirit  is 
an  oLirapxhi  ^  first  fruits  of  a  divine  fulfillment;  an  earnest,  dppa- 
/Scov  '  with  a  view  to  a  complete  redemption  which  will  give  pos- 
session,' Eph.  1,  14.22  j^  jg  j^Q^  Qjjy  ^  divine  promise  but  a  present 
divine  'full  assurance  of  hope,'  Heb.  6,  11.  Since  it  is  to  be  the 
support  of  the  life  of  faith  and  an  invigoration  of  moral  energy 
in  the  spiritual  struggles  of  the  present  time,  Rom.  8,  18-39,  life 
in  the  Spirit  can  be  presented  in  the  New  Testament  as  a  life 
begun  and  perfected  in  the  assurance  of  hope  given  in  the  earnest 
of  the  Spirit  of  promise.  This  plerophoria  is  the  keynote  of  the 
doxology  of  I  Pet.  1,  3-12,  to  God  who  begat  us  again  to  a  living 
hope;  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  issues  in  the  prayer  to  the 
God  of  hope  that  beUevers  may  abound  in  hope  'in  the  power'  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  15,  13. 

22  Deissmann,  BiJble  Studies,  108,  230.  The  above  interpretation  of 
TepLTolr}<ns  by  von  Soden  and  T.  K.  Abbott  would  support  his  explana- 
tion of  jSe^atwcrts. 


134    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

In  the  same  prayer  it  is  recognized  that  abounding  in  the  living 
hope  is  possible  only  *in  beUeving.'  The  plerophoria  of  hope 
cannot  be  separate  from  that  of  faith  and  sonship.  Both  are 
united  in  the  arrabon  of  the  Spirit  of  God's  Son  which  He  sends  in 
the  confirmation  of  faith.  For  faith  working  through  love  is 
as  well  the  hypostasis,  the  'substantiating'  of,  'that  which  gives 
real  existence'  to,  the  things  hoped  for.  'For  we  through  the 
Spirit  by  faith  wait  for  the  hope  of  righteousness.'  ^^ 

Throughout  the  New  Testament  teachings  concerning  the 
confirmation  of  faith,  we  find  illustrations  and  verifications  of 
Westcott's  statement:  "Revelation  is  out  of  life,  in  life  and  unto 
life."  It  comes  out  of  God's  undivided  life;  and  in  the  whole  of 
Christ's  life  as  the  truth,  the  righteousness,  the  redeeming  love  of 
God.  And  it  is  presents  as  the  regenerating  power  unto  salvation 
to  our  whole  life  at  its  central  point  of  personality,  which  is  the 
unity  of  consciousness  as  at  once  feeling,  knowing  and  doing:  the 
spirit  of  man  whose  consciousness  of  self,  the  world  and  of  God  is 
direct  and  immediate.  Upon  this  spirit  of  man  God  ever  acts, 
through  whatever  ministries  and  relationships,  directly  and  im- 
mediately; and  from  this  center  of  personality,  illuminates  the 
intellect,  constrains  the  affections  with  the  love  of  Christ,  invigor- 
ates the  will  for  any  renunciation  and  for  absolute  self-consecra- 
tion; and  thus  evokes  the  free  response  of  faith,  and  confirms  this 
faith  with  the  certitude  of  salvation  in  the  personal  experience  of 
the  indwelling  within  the  believer's  spirit  of  the  Spirit  of  His 
glorified  Son. 

3.    ESTABLISHMENT   IN   THE   FAITH 

The  initial  confirmation  of  faith  is  the  foundation  upon  which 
the  succeeding  Christian  life  is  to  be  built  up.  Among  the  numer- 
ous expressions  used  in  reference  to  the  maintenance  and  develop- 
ment of  the  plerophoria,  the  most  general  term  is  establishment, 
CTrjpl^eiv.  We  meet  it  in  Paul's  first  missionary  journey.  Acts  14, 
22.  The  ministry  of  conversion  in  South  Galatia  is  followed  by  the 
Apostle's  return  through  the  localities  of  his  expulsion  and  persecu- 
tions, to  'establish'  the  souls  of  the  disciples  and  to  exhort  them 

«  Gal.  5,  5.  'HjLiets  yap  UvtviJiaTL  tK  Ti(TT€(jJS  iKirlda  Suatoauvr/s 
d7r€K5ex6/ie^a. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  135 

to  'abide  in  the  faith'  amid  the  tribulations  through  which  they 
must  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God.  His  next  journey  was  not 
begun  as  a  missionary  propaganda,  but  to  visit  these  Galatian 
brethren  to  see  how  they  fare,  and  still  further  to  establish  them, 
15,  36.41.  The  result  of  this  visit  was,  16,  5,  that  these  churches 
were  fixed  solidly,  earepeovvro,  in  the  faith. 

The  word,  its  equivalents  and  corresponding  phrases  appear 
constantly  in  the  Acts  and  Epistles.  All  the  technical  expressions 
for  this  establishment,  the  parallel  ideas  and  metaphors  rest  on  the 
conception  of  Christian  life,  individual  or  corporate  as  a  new 
reality.  It  is  a  new  birth  of  an  incorruptible  seed;  a  new  planting 
in  the  Ukeness  of  Christ's  death  and  resurrection;  a  new  building 
up  of  Hving  stones  upon  the  foundation  that  is  laid,  which  is 
Jesus  Christ. ^^  The  metaphors  point  to  corresponding  goals. 
The  babes  in  Christ  are  to  attain  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fulness  of  Christ;  the  plantings  are  to  be  filled  with  the  fruit  of 
righteousness;  the  living  stones  to  be  built  up  into  a  holy  temple  in 
the  Lord,  pillars  which  shall  go  out  thence  no  more.  To  reach  this 
goal  there  is  presupposed  not  only  the  initial  work  of  conversion 
but  a  spiritual  feeding  with  milk  and  solid  food  and  nurture  in  the 
words  of  the  faith  and  of  the  good  doctrine;  a  watering  and  spirit- 
ual husbandry  of  the  planting;  and  a  building  up  of  the  living 
stones  upon  their  most  holy  faith.  "^ 

These  metaphors  which  are  developed  and  applied  throughout 
the  New  Testament  in  passages  too  numerous  and  familiar  for 
transcription  are  directly  concerned  with  the  establishment  of 
faith.  The  fact  that  they  appear  in  all  groups  of  New  Testament 
writings,  their  frequent  combination  and  at  times  without  regard 
to  the  mixture  of  metaphor,  the  working  out  of  the  details  of  the 
figures  in  their  application  to  Christian  life  and  the  assumed 
familiarity  of  the  readers  with  them,  suggest  their  use  in  the  ser- 
vices and  ministries  of  the  primitive  Church;  and  further  their 
probable  ultimate  source  in  reminiscences  of  Christ's  teachings. 
He  had  declared  the  need  of  the  new  birth  and  becoming  like  little 
children  in  order  to  enter  the  kingdom;  had  brought  the  Gospel  of 
sonship;  had  spoken  of  those  who  received  his  revelation  of  the 
Father  as  babes.    Of  their  growth  and  bringing  forth  fruit,  he  had 

24 1  Pet.  1,  23.  Jas.  1,  18.  Gal.  4,  19.  I  Cor.  4,  15;  Rom.  6,  5.  I  Cor.  3, 
6  ff.  cp.  Mtw.  15,  13;  Eph.  2,  20  fif.;  I  Pet.  2,  5.;  I  Cor.  3,  9  ff. 


136    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

taught  in  his  parables  of  sowing  and  in  his  allegory  of  the  husbandry 
of  the  vines.  But  most  definitely  the  apostolic  metaphor  of 
building,  oUodofjiri,  recalls  not  only  the  building  up  of  the  Church 
upon  the  rock,  Mtw.  16,  18,  cp.  Eph.  2,  20  ff.,  but  also  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  In  both  reports  in  Mtw.  and 
Lk.  from  Q,  the  man  who  not  only  hears  but  does  Christ's  words  is 
likened  to  a  man  building,  having  first  founded  his  house  upon  the 
rock:  cpKoSburjaev,  TedefjLeXuaTo;  and  abiding  stedfast,  not  wave- 
tossed  or  wind-driven,  Eph.  4,  14,  when  the  floods  came  and  the 
winds  blew  and  beat  upon  that  house.  The  mixture  of  metaphor 
in  the  Epistles  is  reminiscent  of  these  Gospel  comparisons.  In 
Eph.  4,  16,  the  body  grows;  and  its  growth  is  with  a  view  to  the 
building  up,  oi/coSo/ii),  of  itself  in  love.  Christians  in  Eph.  3,  17, 
are  not  only  rooted  but  grounded  on. a  foundation:  rc^ejueXtco/x^z/ot; 
and  thus  rooted.  Col.  2,  7,  are  being  built  up  and  kept  steadfast, 
cp.  1,  23.  Similarly  in  I  Pet.  2,  2  f.,  the  new  bom  babes  taste  the 
spiritual  \oyt.Kbv  milk  that  they  may  grow  thereby  unto  salvation; 
come  to  the  living  stone  and  are  built  up  into  a  spiritual  house. 

The  series  of  terms  for  development  in  the  metaphor  of  body 
and  seed  naturally  emphasize  the  idea  of  progress  towards  fullness 
of  growth  and  fruitage:  aujatj^co,  TrXcoj/Afoj,  irepiaatvoi.  But 
in  the  figure  of  building,  the  prominent  idea  is  that  of  establish- 
ment, stedfastness,  immovability,  firm  standing  and  abiding  on 
the  foundation  that  is  laid,  as  the  living  stones  are  built  up  and 
reach  the  perfection  of  being  a  habitation  of  God  in  the  Spirit: 
(TTr^piyyubs,  (TTepeol,  artpidyyia,  ihpaloi,  iLfieTaKLvrjTOi,,  LaTrjp,L,  ^tti- 
ep,-p,h(jj,  KaTapTKTfids.  The  closing  assurance  of  I  Peter  reviews 
the  process  from  the  goal  to  the  beginning:  God  will  perfect,  estab- 
lish, strengthen,  keep  them  on  the  foundation. '^^  The  aim  of  the 
estabUshment,  which  is  distinct  from  the  confirmation  of  faith,  is  to 
build  up  behevers  upon  it;  to  strengthen  them  so  as  to  abide  sted- 
fast and  immovable  amid  all  the  experiences  and  trials  of  their  per- 
sonal life;  and  against  all  the  attacks  on  their  faith  and  hope  which 
they  were  compelled  to  face  in  the  internal  controversies  and  ex- 
ternal persecutions  of  the  Apostolic  Age. 

Establishment  by  increase  of  spiritual  stature,  fruit  of  the  Spirit, 
upbuilding  on  the  immovable  foundation,  is  effected  like  the  de- 

"I  Pet.  5,  10.    KaTapTiaet,  (TTTjptfet,  (Td€v6)(T€(,,  ^c/xeXioxret. 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  137 

fense  and  confirmation  of  the  Gospel,  primarily  by  a  divine  minis- 
try in  the  soul.  Paul  is  confident  that  he  who  has  begun  a  good 
work  in  the  Philippians  will  perfect  it  until  the  day  of  Christ; 
and  that  as  the  witness  of  Christ  was  confirmed  in  the  Corinthians, 
God  will  keep  them  blameless  in  their  firmness,  i3e/3atw<r€t ; 
Php.  1,  6;  1  Cor.  1,  6.8.  In  the  same  conviction,  Jesus  is  called 
Hbws.  12,  2,  the  initiator  and  perfecter  of  our  faith:  apx^T^s  Kal 
Te\€t,(*)Tr]s.  These  assurances  appear  in  a  form  and  in  connections 
to  suggest  that  they  are  echoes  of  the  language  of  primitive  Church 
worship.  They  occur  regularly  in  the  prayers,  thanksgivings  and 
doxologies  of  the  writers.  The  prayers  for  the  Thessalonians  are 
that  God  himself  will  estabhsh  their  hearts  blameless;  that  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself  and  God  our  Father  may  establish 
them  in  every  good  word  and  work,  and  guard  them  from  the 
Evil:  1  Thess.  3,  11  f.,  cp.  5,  23;  II  Thess.  2, 17;  3,  3.  To  the  Lord 
the  Apostle  commends  the  Ephesian  elders,  since  he  is  able  to 
build  them  up  and  give  them  the  inheritance.  And  in  the  doxology 
which  concludes  Romans,  God  is  addressed  as  the  one  able  to  es- 
tabhsh the  readers.  The  Palestinian  writers  repeat  the  thought 
in  the  same  forms.  The  assurance  of  divine  estabUshment  at  the 
close  of  I  Peter  has  already  been  cited;  and  in  the  same  strain  is 
Jude's  doxology  to  God  '  who  is  able  to  guard  you  from  stumbling 
and  to  cause  you  to  stand  without  Flemish  before  the  presence 
of  his  glory.'  This  confidence  is  moreover  repeatedly  based  on 
the  Uturgical  formula,  tlcttos  6  deos.  He  is  faithful  to  his  prom- 
ise of  the  messianic  salvation  brought  in  the  Gospel.  'Faithful 
is  he  who  calls  us,  who  also  will  do'  what  He  has  promised  in  that 
call,  I  Thess.  5,  24.  'Faithful  is  the  Lord  who  will  establish  and 
guard  you,'  II  Thess.  3,  2.  He  will '  confirm  unto  the  end,'  I  Cor. 
1,  8  f.,  since  'faithful  is  God  by  whom  ye  were  called  into  the 
fellowship  of  his  Son  ';  cp.  I  John,  1,  9. 

As  He  uses  human  organs  and  means  to  effect  conversion,  so 
he  uses  them  for  its  estabUshment.  The  general  means  is  fellow- 
ship in  the  worship,  work,  ministry  and  life  of  the  Church.^  Paul's 
ideal  for  the  PhiHppians,  1,  27,  is  that  they  stand  in  one  spirit, 

2«  A.  Doraer,  Kirche  und  Reich  GoUes,  develops  his  conception  of  the  Church 
from  the  thesis  that  'the  primitive  Church  has  presented  itself  originally  as  a 
Society  for  worship  and  that  all  its  ensuing  further  functions  have  attached 
themselves  to  this  character  of  the  Church.' 


138    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

with  one  soul  striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the  GospeL  Since 
the  Apostohc  ministry  is  the  organ  of  this  corporate  Ufe  in  one 
spirit  and  soul,  growth  and  estabhshment  as  well  as  conversion 
will  be  found  to  be  an  essential  function  and  aim  of  their  ministry. 
The  function  common  to  the  several  classes  of  ministers  in  Eph. 
4,  11  f.,  is  the  perfecting  of  the  saints;  and  for  the  reaUzation  of 
this  ideal,  the  various  classes  of  general  and  local  officers  are  given 
'for  the  work  of  ministry,  for  the  building  up  of  the  body  of 
Christ.^^  This  function  and  duty  of  the  Apostles  and  founders 
of  churches  is  performed  primarily  by  a  personal  visit  whose 
direct  purpose  was  to  establish  the  souls  of  the  disciples.  So  nor- 
mal a  feature  of  primitive  Church  life  was  this,  that  Paul's  fail- 
ures to  make  the  visitation  called  forth  as  in  I  Thess.  2,  17-3,  13; 
II  Cor.  1, 15-23;  Rom.  15,  14-23,  most  solemn  defenses:  assurances 
to  the  Thessalonians  of  his  abundant  prayers  to  see  their  face  and 
to  perfect  what  is  lacking  in  their  faith,  I  Thess,  3,  10;  solemn 
oaths  to  Corinthians  and  Romans,  invoking  God  to  witness  the 
real  causes  of  his  failure  to  visit  them,  Rom.  1,  9-16;  II  Cor.  1,  23. 
Even  when  in  bonds  in  Rome,  the  thought  of  official  pastoral 
visitation  rises  spontaneously,  Philpp.  1,  25-30,  and  leads  to  his 
conviction  that  although  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ  would  be 
for  himself  very  far  better,  yet  he  would  live  to  visit  the  Philippians 
for  their  advance  and  joy  in  faith  by  means  of  his  return  and 
presence  among  them.  Other  indications  of  this  customary  per- 
sonal ministry  of  the  Apostles  appear  in  II  and  III  John.    Corre- 

^  All  the  critical  texts  by  the  omission  of  the  comma  after  '  perfecting  of 
the  saints'  which  is  inserted  in  the  Textus  Receptus  and  Enghsh  versions, 
support  the  interpretation  by  Westcott,  B.  Weiss,  Robinson,  etc.,  that  the 
perfecting  is  for  'service.'  Weiss's  further  omission  of  the  comma  after  'serv- 
ice,' points  to  their  service  as  the  upbuilding  of  the  body.  In  the  view  adopted 
above,  KarapTtcr/xos  is  regarded  in  this  context,  as  in  those  where  it  appears  in 
liturgical  contexts,  not  merely  as  the  process  as  in  some  other  passages,  but 
as  the  ultimate  goal,  the  reXetoxTis  the  attainment  unto  the  &vhpa  riKeiov 
of  vs.  13.  The  perfecting  of  the  saints  would  thus  be  the  result  of  diaKOVia 
and  OLKodofii}  and  not  their  equipment  for  these  functions.  EUicott  supports 
this  view  in  connection  with  the  charge  of  the  prepositions:  7rp65  KaTapriafibp 
referring  to  the  more  ultimate  and  final  purpose,  and  els — els  to  the  more 
immediate  purpose  of  the  action.  He  paraphrases:  '  God  gave  Apostles  etc.,  to 
fulfill  the  work  of  the  ministry  and  to  build  up  the  body  of  Christ;  hia  object 
being  to  perfect  his  saints.' 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  139 

spondence  is  inadequate  for  the  many  things  the  Elder  has  to 
communicate,  II  John  12.  He  will  visit  them  not  simply  for  the 
happiness  of  personal  intercourse,  but  with  the  aim  of  their  mutual 
establishment,  as  seen  in  the  solemn  formula,  'that  our  joy  may 
be  made  full,'  cp.  I  John  1, 4;  John,  15, 11;  16,  24;  and  also  with  the 
aim  of  discipline  of  Diotrephes,  III  John  10.  Heb.  13,  22  f.  ex- 
presses a  similar  recognition  of  the  hmitations  of  the  brief  writ- 
ten word  of  exhortation,  which  is  followed  by  a  promise  of  a 
personal  visit  and  ministry.  Peter's  writing  5t'  bXiyoiVy  5,  12, 
reflects  the  same  feeling  of  the  advantages  of  personal  exhorta- 
tion.^^ 

So  definite  indeed  is  this  recognition  of  the  need  of  Apostolic 
visitation  and  ministry  for  the  establishment  of  believers,  that 
provision  is  expressly  made  in  case  of  their  inability  to  visit  the 
Churches.  Timothy  is  commissioned  to  represent  Paul  at  Thes- 
salonica,  Philippi,  Corinth  and  Ephesus;  Titus  at  Corinth,  Crete 
and  Dalmatia;  Tychicus  in  Asia.  Judas  and  Silas  represent  at 
Antioch  the  Apostolic  conference  of  Jerusalem.  In  this  and  in 
all  the  other  instances  there  is  a  distinct  emphasis  on  their  office 
as  ministers  of  God  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ  and  also  on  the  es- 
tablishment of  disciples  as  the  work  they  were  to  accomplish 
either  in  association  with  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Antioch,  as  by 
the  two  Jerusalem  hegoumenoi  and^rophets;  or  in  Paul's  en- 
forced absence  by  exile  from  Thessalonica,  or  from  Corinth  by 
pressure  of  work,  anxiety  and  desire  to  spare  them,  or  from  Philippi 
and  the  Asian  Churches,  by  imprisonment. 

Of  the  detailed  character  of  this  ministry  of  personal  vis- 
itation of  churches  already  founded,  Luke  has  given  no 
record  in  the  Acts.  It  has  been  remarked  that  his  direct 
interest    is    in    their    founding.     He    has    simply    stated    that 

28  The  structure  of  the  sentence,  5t*  6\iyoiV  eypaxl/a,  irapaKoKccv  Kal 
iinixapTvpCiV  may  illustrate  the  meaning  of  Rom.  15,  15:  ToXjJLrjpOTeposs 
<typa\l/a  awo  jtxepovs,  cos  ewavafJLLUvriaKcov.  It  is  usually  understood  as  an 
apology  for  portions  of  the  Letter;  or  by  Hofmann  for  what  is  fragmentary  in 
its  teaching;  or  by  Godet  as  recalling  things  already  known  to  a  certain 
degree.  In  view  of  the  obvious  objections  to  all  these  explanations,  it  may 
be  proposed  that  Paul  is  here  expressing  the  usual  sense  of  the  limitations  of 
an  Epistle  to  communicate  the  fullness  of  the  spiritual  gift  for  estabUshment, 
1,  11  f.  cp.  15,  29,  which  he  hopes  to  share  with  them  upon  his  personal  visit, 
1,  13;  15,  22  fif. 


140    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  visits  at  the  conclusion  of  the  first  missionary  jour- 
ney and  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  was  to  estabHsh  the 
souls  of  the  disciples  on  the  churches,  and  adds  in  the  first  state- 
ment, Acts  14,  22,  a  reference  to  the  Apostles'  ministry  of  'ex- 
hortation to  abide  in  the  faith'  and  of  ordination  of  presbyters. 
Nothing  further  is  narrated  of  his  second  visit  to  the  churches  of 
Macedonia  than  that  he  gave  them  much  exhortation,  20,  2.  Not 
a  word  is  written  of  the  three  months'  ministry  in  Greece,  vs.  3. 
The  extended  discourse  before  the  Eucharist  at  Troas  is  men- 
tioned as  introductory  to  the  narrative  concerning  Eutychus.  We 
can  therefore  only  conjecture  what  were  the  general  features  of 
these  visitations  as  we  may  recognize  reflections  of  them  in  the 
Epistles  sent  in  lieu  of  them.  Like  all  letters  they  construct  a 
situation  in  which  the  writer  is  present  with  the  readers;  and  def- 
initely in  this  case,  present  in  spirit  with  the  church  assembled 
for  worship.  Their  fundamental  aim  is  the  same  as  that  of  per- 
sonal ministry  in  such  a  service:  to  impart  some  spiritual  gift  that 
the  hearers  may  be  established,  Rom.  1,  11.  When  writing,  Paul 
though  absent  in  flesh,  is  yet  with  the  €olossians  in  spirit,  rejoic- 
ing and  beholding  their  order  and  the  stedfastness  of  their  faith 
in  Christ:  rriv  tAJij'  Kat  t6  (rrepiufia  Trjs  Tricreajs  vfi&v,  cp. 
1  Cor.  5,  3  f .  Reuss,  History  of  the  New  Testament,  §  74,  has 
stated  that  the  writings  of  Paul  'might  be  characterized  by  the 
general  name  of  pastoral  epistles,  inasmuch  as  the  Apostle  oc- 
cupies himself  chiefly  in  them  with  the  reUgious  and  ecclesiastical 
condition  of  the  churches  to  which  he  writes,  and  in  which  he  had 
formerly  held,  and  wished  still  to  hold  the  position  of  shepherd  of 
souls  and  spiritual  guide.' 

Since  the  Letters  were  written  in  the  consciousness  of  such  a 
relation  and  situation,  we  should  expect  to  find  a  general  corre- 
spondence between  their  character  and  contents  and  that  of  the 
personal  ministry  in  the  actual  church  service.  Without  entering 
into  the  Uturgical  questions  as  to  the  order,  forms  and  ministrants 
in  the  primitive  worship,  we  can  recognize  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment allusions  to  it  that  it  included  the  reading  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  some  form  of  commemoration  of  the  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus;  and  based  upon  this,  a  preaching  of  the  Word  and  a  doc- 
trinal instruction.  In  addition  there  was  the  prophetic  ministry 
to  whose  functions  Paul  refers  when  in  I  Cor.  14,  6  he  speaks  of 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  141 

coming  himself  to  the  church  service  speaking  either  by  way  of 
revelation  or  of  knowledge  or  of  prophesying  or  of  teaching. 
These  utterances  of  the  prophets  are  described  in  vs.  3  as  edifica- 
tion, exhortation,  consolation,  cp.  Acts  15,  32,  and  serve  like  the 
other  ministries  in  the  Church  service,  for  the  estabUshment  of 
faith.  Hence  Timothy  is  directed,  I  Tim.  4,  13  ff.  to  give  at- 
tendance to  the  customary  pubUc  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  i} 
avdyvcoaLs,  to  the  exhortation,  to  the  teaching;  and  again,  II  Tim. 
4,  2,  is  charged  to  preach  the  Word,  to  be  urgent  in  season,  out 
of  season,  to  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort,  with  all  long  suffering  and 
teaching.  And  all  these  forms  of  instruction,  exhortation  and 
discipline  are  given  in  connection  with  the  worship  in  prayer, 
psabns,  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  and  in  the  thanksgivings  of 
the  Eucharistic  service. 

Whatever  types  of  services  distinct  from  the  Lord's  Supper 
were  developed,  to  which  *the  unlearned  and  unbelieving'  were 
admitted,  I  Cor.  14,  23,^®  the  Eucharist  as  the  primitive  and 
principal  Church  service  would  always  normally  retain  the  ele- 
ments of  instruction,  exhortation  and  worship.  ^°  McGiffert, 
Apos.  Age,  p.  536,  believes  that  the  distinction  made  by  Weiz- 
sacker  between  meetings  for  the  Word  and  for  the  Eucharist  may 
fairly  be  drawn.  He  recalls,  however,  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  that  such  exercises  as  those  a:ssigned  to  the  meeting  for 
the  Word,  'did  not  occur  in  connection'  with  the  Lord's  Supper. 
*It  is  altogether  probable  that  when  Christians  came  together  to 
break  bread,  they  spoke  and  prayed  and  prophesied  as  they  had 
opportunity  or  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance.'  A  year  later 
than  the  references  in  I  Cor.  11  and  14  to  what  are  largely  held 
to  be  distinct  services,  Paul's  service  of  Breaking  Bread  at  Troas, 
Acts  20,  7  ff.,  included  extended  discourse.  In  Hbws.  10,  25,  the 
assembling  together  for  mutual  exhortation  and  incitement  to 
love  and  good  works,  is  developed  in  13,  9  ff.  with  references  to 
the  ministry  of  the  Word,  teachings,  feeding  from  the  altar,  sac- 
rifices of  praise  and  beneficence.    We  may  also  note  in  Pliny's 

29  The  distinction  of  services  as  meetings  for  the  Word  and  for  the  Eucharist, 
made  by  WeizsScker,  Apos.  Age,  II,  246  S.,  is  modified  by  Lindsay,  Church 
and  Ministry  in  the  early  Centuries,  p.  43  f.,  by  the  further  distinction  of  a 
meeting  for  business. 

»» Cp.  Rackham,  Acts,  pp.  37,  39,  378. 


142    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

letter  to  Trajan,  that  unless  the  Bithynian  Christians  altogether 
abandoned  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion,  it  must  as 
Lightfoot  holds  have  been  united  with  the  early  morning  service 
of  exhortation  and  worship,  as  indeed  we  find  it  described  a  half- 
century  later  in  Justin,  I  Apology,  67.  The  Sunday  service  as  there 
described  begins  with  a  prolonged  reading,  M^XPtJ  ^yx^PVi  ^^  ^hi^ 
Memoirs  of  the  Apostles  or  the  writings  of  the  Prophets.  Where- 
upon the  wpoeaTOis  by  means  of  a  discourse  makes  the  instruction, 
vovdeala,  and  exhortation,  irapaKkqais  or  incitement  -wpoKK-qais,  to 
the  imitation  of  these  good  things.  Next,  all  rise  together  and 
offer  prayers;  after  which  the  bread  and  wine  are  brought  and  the 
7rpo€<7Tcbs  likewise  offers  prayers  and  thanksgivings. 

It  is  significant  in  this  connection  that  the  New  Testament 
Epistles  are  also  constructed  in  a  framework  of  thanksgiving,  prayer, 
doxology  and  benediction.  The  three  opening  chapters  of  I 
Thess.  are  interwoven  into  the  sections  of  thanksgiving  and 
prayer  which  are  used  in  the  Pauline  Epistles.  The  whole  doc- 
trinal portion  of  Ephesians  is  the  outpouring  of  doxology,  prayer, 
thanksgiving  and  again  doxology.  So  too  when  present  in  the 
spirit  with  the  Colossians,  the  Apostle  communicates  his  pro- 
fpundest  Christological  teaching  in  the  form  of  thanksgiving  and 
prayer.  Von  Soden  has  emphasized  the  liturgical  character  of 
these  two  Epistles.  It  is  in  fact  a  characteristic  of  all  the  Epistles 
and  of  the  Revelation.  ^^  We  may  also  be  reminded  in  the  com- 
pressed opening  references  to  the  Old  Testament  and  Gospel 
foundation  of  the  teaching  which  follows  in  the  Epistles,  e.  g.y 
Romans,  Titus,  Hebrews,  cp.  I  Peter  1,  10-12  of  the  Anagnosis  of 
I  Tim.  4,  13  and  the  introductory  reading  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles,  mentioned  by  Justin.  Following 
this  both  in  the  Church  service  and  in  the  Epistles,  are  the  two 
broadly  marked  forms  of  instruction:  teaching  on  matters  related 
to  the  fundamental  faith,  and  exhortation  to  a  Christian  life 
under  the  inspiration  of  the  Christian  hope  and  in  the  fellowship 
of  the  Church.32 

"  Lindsay,  oj).  cU.,  p.  45,  in  accord  with  Weizsacker,  II,  p.  260,  believes 
'the  author  of  the  Apocalypse  used  the  outline  of  the  Christian  worship  of 
the  earUest  age  as  the  canvas  on  which  he  painted  his  glorious  prophetic 
visions.' 

"  Deissmann's  decision  in  Bible  Studies.  49  ff.  that  Hebrews  and  the  Catho- 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  143 

The  relation  of  this  establishment,  whether  by  personal  ministry 
on  epistle,  to  the  original  confirmation  of  faith  may  be  recognized, 
next,  in  connection  with  the  needs,  occasions  and  general  means 
of  the  establishment.  There  was  obvious  need  of  a  continued  firm 
grasp  and  of  an  increasing  appropriation  of  the  significance  and 
power  of  the  redemptive  facts  and  truths  in  which  the  disciples 
had  professed  belief  at  baptism;  that  they  should  advance  unto 
all  riches  of  the  full  assurance  of  understanding,  unto  direct  ap- 
prehension of  the  mystery  of  God,  even  Christ,  Col.  2,  2.  Equally 
constant  was  their  need  of  establishment  in  a  life  of  Christian 
duty  summed  up  in,  'Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law';  that  this 
love  should  abound  yet  more  and  more  in  the  sphere  of  direct  ap- 
prehension and  in  every  form  of  perception,  and  that  they  should 
thus  be  filled  with  the  fruit  of  righteousness,  Php.  1,  9  ff.  And 
establishment  was  especially  needed  in  their  life  of  patient  hope 
of  consummated  salvation  at  their  Lord's  coming.  As  the  hope 
of  salvation  was  central  in  their  religious  life:  the  outgrowth  of 
their  faith  and  the  animation  of  love  and  duty,  it  is  naturally  a 
most  prominent  aim  of  the  New  Testament  anqpiy^s.  Every 
writer  reflects  this  aim  that  is  revealed  in  the  closing  prayer  of 
Romans:  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope.  In  organic  relation  with 
these  three  needs,  one  other  is  apparent:  to  be  established  cor- 
porately  in  the  life  of  Christian  fellowship  in  the  Church's  minis- 
try, sacraments,  worship  and  work  in  the  Lord, 
lie  Epistles  or  some  of  them  are  not  real  letters,  as  those  of  Paul,  but  tractates, 
treatises  in  form  of  letters,  booklets  for  the  general  Christian  pubUc,  or  'Ut- 
erary  epistles,'  might  be  modified  by  the  above  view  that  the  essential  char- 
acteristic of  a  New  Testament  letter  is  not  simply  an  intimate  personal  com- 
munication to  a  definite  destination;  but  a  communication  to  Christians  who 
recognize  the  ministry  of  the  writers,  containing  such  instruction  and  exhorta- 
tion as  would  be  given  by  the  writers  if  they  were  personally  present  at  the 
Church  service.  The  CathoHc  Epistles  are  no  more  proved  to  be  treatises 
instead  of  letters  by  reason  of  variety  of  destination,  than  do  the  encyclicals 
to  the  Galatians  and  Ephesians  cease  to  be  real  letters,  on  account  of  a  similar 
variety  of  destination.  All  of  them  are,  though  in  part  doctrinal,  exhorta- 
tions on  the  topics  and  in  the  method  which  is  found  in  the  hortatory  sections 
of  the  Paulines.  Hebrews,  as  regards  structure,  is  no  more  a  literary  oration 
on  the  plane  of  4  Maccabees  than  is  Romans.  Its  main  Hterary  divisions 
are  in  marked  correspondence  to  those  of  Romans:  Heb.  1,  1-4,  O.  T.  and 
Gospel  basis  to  Rom.  1,  1^;  1,  5-10,  18,  doctrinal  didaskalia  to  Rom.  1,  16- 
11,  36;  10,  19-13,  17,  paraklesis  to  Rom.  12,  1-15,  13;  13,  18-25,  personal 
communications,  salutations,  etc.,  to  Rom.  15,  14-16,  27. 


144    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

All  these  abiding  needs  are  interrelated  in  the  actual  develop- 
ment of  Christian  life.  Hence  while  the  New  Testament  writers 
are  ordinarily  concerned  with  meeting  some  one  of  them  or  special 
phases  of  them,  yet  even  in  such  cases  the  general  needs  are  kept 
in  view  and  a  general  establishment  in  stedfastness  at  the  center 
and  focus  of  life  is  aimed  at.  They  are  for  the  most  part  men- 
tioned together  in  the  various  familiar  sumtmaries  of  the  aims  of 
the  exhortations  and  prayers  in  the  Epistles.  The  readers  of 
Jude  in  order  to  meet  the  false  teachings  denounced,  need,  vs.  20, 
to  build  themselves  upon  their  most  holy  faith;  to  worship  in  the 
Holy  Spirit;  to  keep  themselves  in  the  love  of  God;  and  to  await 
the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal  life.  The  believers 
in  Heb.  10,  19,  already  possessing  entrance  into  the  holiest  by  the 
High  Priesthood  of  Christ,  need  to  draw  near  in  the  full  assurance 
of  faith  confirmed  in  baptism;  in  holding  on  without  wavering  to 
the  confession  of  the  hope  of  salvation,  resting  on  the  fidelity  of 
God  to  fulfill  his  promise;  in  mutual  stirring  up  to  love  and  good 
works;  and  along  with  these,  by  continuing  to  assemble  in  Christian 
worship  for  mutual  exhortation  and  strengthening.  The  rest  of 
the  Epistle  directly  develops  these  four  needs  of  establishment. 
The  disciples  in  Thessalonica,  are  standing  in  the  Lord  by  faith, 
I  Thess.  3,  7-10;  and  Paul's  prayer  is  that  by  his  personal  minis- 
try he  may  perfect  what  is  lacking,  ra  mreprinaTa,  in  their  faith; 
and  that  the  Lord  himself  would  cause  them  to  abound  in  love 
and  establish  them  in  holiness  until  His  Parousia,  the  object  of 
their  hope;  and  after  developing  this  walk  in  love  supported  by 
the  eschatological  hope,  4,  11-5,  11,  he  exhorts  concerning  the 
Church  fellowship  in  5,  11-22.  Even  in  the  exalted  free  move- 
ment of  the  devotional  form  of  Colossians,  it  is  noticeable  that  the 
doctrinal  establishment  against  the  false  teaching,  1,  14-23,  is 
interwoven  with  his  thanksgiving  for  the  readers'  stedfastness  in 
faith,  love  and  hope  under  the  ministry  of  Epaphras,  vss.  3-8,  and 
with  his  prayer,  vss.  9-13,  for  their  advance  in  fruitfulness  in  the 
walk  of  love,  their  growth  in  the  iiriyvoyoLs  of  God,  their  continu- 
ous strengthening  unto  all  patience  of  hope,  and  for  their  joy  and 
thanksgiving  in  the  interitance  and  fellowship  in  the  kingdom  of 
God's  Son. 

Establishment  in  these  fundamental  features  by  the  normal 
upbuilding  of  a  Christian  life  that  was  standing  and  strengthened 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  145 

in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  his  might,  and  that  was  watching 
in  all  perseverance  and  in  united  prayers,  praise  and  thanksgivings, 
Eph.  6,  20.18;  5,  19,  was  provided  for  in  the  Church  worship, 
teaching  and  work  under  the  local  ministry.  The  Thessalonian 
clergy,  I  Thess.  5,  14,  are  to  admonish  the  disorderly,  encourage 
the  fainthearted,  to  support  the  weak,  to  be  longsuffering  toward 
all,  as  Timothy  is  also  to  minister,  II  Tim.  4,  2,  and  as  earlier 
the  Ephesian  elders  are  urged  to  support  the  weak,  Acts  20,  35. 
But  in  that  address  and  in  the  exhortations  to  pastoral  ministra- 
tions in  the  Epistles  a  further  need  of  estabUshment  by  reason  of 
perversions  of  the  faith,  hindrances  to  the  walk  in  love,  strains 
upon  the  Christian  hope  or  even  denials  of  it,  breaches  in  the 
life  of  fellowship,  by  reason  of  attacks  from  within  and  from 
without.  The  historical  occasions  of  these  are  to  be  considered 
later.  But  we  may  at  once  observe  that  the  method  of  meeting 
these  attacks  is  from  the  fixed  standing  ground  of  the  original 
apologia  of  the  Gospel  witness  accepted  and  confirmed  in  the 
full  assurance  of  faith.  The  Epistles  are  addressed  to  believers 
who  accept  this  basis  of  argument.  We  find  in  them  therefore 
no  renewal  of  the  original  defense  of  the  Gospel  and  no 
vindication  of  any  of  the  forms  of  its  witness.  They  are 
directed  against  teachings  which  are  shown  to  be  false  be- 
cause they  involve  a  denial  of  the^eal  nature,  implications 
and  consequences  of  the  acknowledged  Gospel  facts  and  their 
relation  to  human  salvation;  and  because  they  threaten,  in- 
stead of  establishment  in  plerophoria,  a  shipwreck  concerning 
the  faith. 

Thus  the  Galatians  are  removing  to  another  Gospel,  are  hin- 
dered from  obeying  the  truth;  yet  there  is  no  repetition  or  defense 
of  the  original  Gospel  and  its  message  of  salvation,  but  an  effort 
to  establish  them  in  it  by  proving  that  their  willingness  to  seek 
salvation  by  legaUstic  obedience,  nullifies  that  Gospel;  sets  aside 
the  grace  of  God;  implies  that  Christ  died  for  nought;  causes 
them  to  be  severed  from  Christ,  Gal.  2,  21;  5,  4.  The  denial  of  a 
general  resurrection,  I  Cor.  15,  12  ff.,  is  confuted  by  showing  it  to 
involve  denial  of  Christ's  resurrection,  the  falsity  of  the  Apostolic 
witness  to  it,  and  the  nullity  of  the  Christian's  faith  in  his  for- 
giveness: all  of  which  contradicts  the  profoundest  Christian  con- 
sciousness and  professed  belief.     The  readers  of  Hebrews  are, 


146    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

from  some  still  debated  cause,  discouraged,  if  not  wavering;  and 
probably  concerning  the  Christian  hope  of  the  return  of  the  in- 
visible Messiah.  They  again  have  need  to  learn  the  fundamental 
elements  of  the  beginning  of  the  oracles  of  God,  5,  12.  Yet  the 
writer  does  not  teach  them;  but  instead  establishes  them  by  his  long 
discourse  and  difficulty  of  interpretation,  concerning  the  heavenly 
priesthood  of  Christ  based  on  the  accepted  Gospel  of  Christ's 
divine  sonship,  1,  1  ff.  incarnation,  redemptive  death  and  res- 
urrection, 2,  5-18,  and  especially  on  his  heavenly  exaltation  in 
accordance  with  Ps.  110  which  closes  the  Old  Testament  quota- 
tions in  chapter  1,  and  of  which  the  section  4,  14-10,  18  f.  is  his 
exposition.  Again,  the  Colossian  heresy  is  met  by  presenting 
the  fuller  development  of  the  Christ's  sonship,  supremacy,  sole 
mediatorship  and  redemption,  in  accordance  with  the  word  of 
the  truth  of  the  Gospel  that  is  present  with  them,*  1,  5.  The 
errorists  in  I  John  are  likewise  opposed  by  a  confident  appeal  to 
what  the  faithful  heard  from  the  beginning,  2,  24,  and  to  their 
original  Christian  experience,  vss.  12-14.  Those  who  teach  a 
docetic  Christ,  2,  22;  4,  2  f.,  deny  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ; 
deny  the  Father  and  the  Son.  To  whatever  date  II  Peter 
is  assigned,  it  follows  the  primitive  mode  of  maintaining  dis- 
ciples in  their  stedfastness  and  growth  in  the  grace  and  knowl- 
edge of  Christ,  3,  17  f.  This  was  not  by  the  method  of  a 
new  and  advancing  apologetic,  but  by  *  stirring  up  their  sin- 
cere mind  by  putting  them  in  remembrance'  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament prophecies  and  of  the  commandment  of  the  Lord 
through  the  Apostles,  3,  1  ff.;  although  they  know  them  and 
are  estabUshed  in  the  truth  that  is  in  them,  1,  12  and  the  pll. 
Jude,  vs.  5. 

This  constant  method  of  appeal  in  the  Epistles  to  the  origmal 
Apostolic  witness  of  the  Gospel,  recalls  the  special  aim  and 
character  of  the  written  Gospels  in  reference  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  faith.  The  Epistles  range  in  date  from  50  to  90  A.  D. 
They  of  course  refer  to  the  fact  of  the  rejection  of  the  Gospel  as 
well  known  to  the  readers;  yet  do  not  state  or  discuss  any  of  the 
direct  attacks  upon  it,  which  were  current  and  constant.  They 
do  not  reveal  that  their  readers  are  affected  by  such  direct  at- 
tacks. They  manifest  no  tendency  to  create,  strengthen  or 
develop  a  new  apologetic;  nor  do  they  know  of  any  proof  different 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  GOSPEL  147 

from  that  of  the  propaganda  which  we  find  in  the  earliest  period 
in  the  Acts. 

These  Epistles,  the  recognized  records  of  the  period  during 
which  it  is  alleged  by  Baldensperger,  Weinel  and  Wernle  that 
there  was  a  constantly  developing  and  freely  creative  Gospel 
apologetic,  fail  to  furnish  any  support  for  that  theory.    The  at- 
tacks on  the  Gospel  preaching  obviously  demanded  and  received 
an  apologetic  which  could  not  wait  for  the  composition  of  written 
Gospels,  after  Christianity  had  spread  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome. 
For  the  attack  began  with  the  earhest  Apostolic  preaching,  even 
with  Christ's  preaching.     The  defense  therefore  had  to  be  made 
at  once;  and  made  too  against  the  whole  line  of  objection  which 
would  as  readily  occur  to,  and  be  urged  by,  opponents  of  the  first 
generation,  as  by  those  of  any  succeeding  generation.     And  this 
defence  had  thus  to  be  made  in  connection  with  the  initial  preach- 
ing of  the  Oral  Gospel,  in  synagogue  debates  and  in  the  catechesis 
of  converts  in  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus.    The  Epistles  are  ad- 
dressed to  those  who  had  certitude  of  faith  in  the  validity  of  this 
apologia.    It  is  not  renewed  or  developed  but  relied  upon  as  the 
foundation   for   establishment   against    any   renewals   of    direct 
attacks  and  also  against  forms  of  indirect  attacks  which  would 
ultimately  subvert  the  truth  of  the  accepted  Gospel  and  the 
Christian  life  of  standing  in  the  faith.  -That  Oral  Gospel  and  in- 
struction had,  however,  a  far  wider  range  of  interests  than  that 
of  a  defensive  apologetic;  and  our  written  Gospels  are  not  mere 
reproductions  of  its  original  apologetic  element;  do  not  contain 
it  fully,  much  less  creatively  develop  it;  and  are  not  dominantly 
apologetic,  both  because  they  contain  so  much  else  besides  an 
apologetic  element,  and  because  they  are  all  written  for  those 
who  are  already  beUevers.     Like  our  Epistles  they  are  written 
primarily  for  establishment  of  these  beUevers,  not  only  in  matters 
of  faith  in  Christ,  but  also  in  the  Christian  walk  in  love,  in  the 
hope  of  salvation  and  in  the  fellowship  in  the  Kingdom  of  grace. 
Each  Evangelist  with  his  gift  of  'inspiration  of  selection,'  and 
meeting  the  distinct  needs  of  his  readers,  presents  from  the  witness 
of  Christ's  own  life,  teaching  and  work,  the  portions  of  that 
self-revelation  which  will  keep  them  in  their  stedfastness  and  full 
assurance  amid  the  temptations,  attacks,  errors  and  persecutions 
surrounding  them. 


148    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 


The  historical  occasions  for  this  establishment  and  the  definite 
means  of  effecting  it,  can  be  considered  in  a  survey  of  the  external 
attacks  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  heathen  State;  and  of  the  internal 
attacks  by  Judaizers,  and  at  the  other  extreme  by  Jewish  Christian 
gnostics. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL   OPPOSITIONS 
1.   THE  JEWISH  ATTACKS 

The  Cross  is  the  monument  of  Jewish  rejection  of  the  Gospel 
in  the  person  of  its  first  Preacher.  The  Church  of  the  Gentiles 
is  the  monument  of  their  rejection  of  it  as  preached  by  the  Church 
of  the  Apostles,  and  of  their  expulsion  of  it  from  the  Jewish  national 
life.  The  New  Testament  has  familiarized  the  world  with  the 
history  of  their  opposition.  As  their  original  polemic  in  the  minis- 
try of  Christ  has  already  been  considered,  we  need  only  briefly 
recall  the  occasions  and  lines  of  their  constant  attack  in  the 
ApostoUc  age. 

In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  Christ  pointed  to  the  original 
and  abiding  character  of  that  attack.  The  Jews  saw  in  him  a 
man  who  was  destroying  the  law  and  the  prophets.  To  them 
he  seemed  to  be  repudiating  the  messianic  ideals  of  those  prophets 
and  attempting  to  abolish  the  religious  and  national  institutions 
of  Mosaism.  In  his  Sermon  he  at  once' refutes  the  charge  with 
the  assertion:  I  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill.^  He  fulfills 
the  prophets,  since  he  brings  in  his  life  and  work  the  fullness  of  the 
messianic  promises  of  redemption  in  the  kingdom;  and  he  com- 
pletes the  law  both  by  revealing  its  deepest  meaning  as  the  ex- 
pression of  the  divine  will,  and  also  by  his  own  perfect  obedience 
to  it  in  its  absolute  meaning.  But  to  men  blind  to  this  revelation 
of  the  Christus  consummator,  his  personal  character  and  work 
became  inevitably  the  object  of  his  opponents'  attack.  We  have 
previously  found  that  there  may  possibly  be  an  allusion  to  the 
slander  concerning  his  birth  in  the  boast  of  the  Jewish  rulers:  we 
were  not  born  of  fornication,  John,  8,  41;  his  provenance  from 
Galilee  was  exploited  both  as  tainting  him  with  its  half-heathen 
associations,  and  more  definitely  as  in  contradiction  of  the  ex- 

^  The  passage  Mtw.  6,  17-19  is  discussed  in  connection  with  the  principal 
recent  views  by  C.  W.  Votaw,  H.  D.  B.,  V,  pp.  22-25. 


150    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

pectation  of  Messiah's  origin  in  Bethlehem,  John,  7,  41  f.  His 
sympathy  with  the  outcast  was  the  basis  of  charges  that  he  too 
was  a  sinner,  a  gluttonous  man  and  a  wine-bibber.  His  undeniable 
miracles  were  turned  into  proofs  that  he  broke  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath,  was  in  league  with  Satan,  had  a  demon. 

As  W.  Richmond  has  shown  in  his  study  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,^ 
Christ's  defense  against  all  such  attacks,  necessitated  a  distinct  self- 
assertion  of  his  Person  and  claims.  Yet  these  self-assertions  evoked 
finally  the  charge  that  he  was  a  blasphemer  in  claiming  messianic 
authority  for  a  ministry  and  teaching  which  they  found  abhorrent, 
and  in  basing  this  messianic  authority  on  the  claim  of  being  God's 
own  Son.  To  his  opponents,  all  their  attacks  seemed  to  be  justi- 
fied by  his  death  on  the  Cross  amid  their  taunts:  he  trusteth  on 
God;  let  him  deliver  him,  if  he  desireth  him.  The  Cross  would 
further  make  incredible  to  them  any  reports  of  a  resurrection, 
even  if  supported  by  inexpUcable  facts.  To  the  Sadducees  the 
idea  of  resurrection  was  in  itself  impossible;  equally  impossible 
to  the  Pharisees  was  the  thought  of  a  resurrection  which  involved 
the  death  of  Messiah,  contradictory  to  their  understanding  of  the 
Old  Testament  prophecies.  We  should  therefore  expect  that  the 
preaching  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  would  evoke  at  once  deter- 
mined attack  by  the  Jewish  opponents,  especially  as  it  included  a 
renewal  of  Christ's  own  teachings  and  claims  in  his  ministry.  Yet 
we  are  confronted  with  the  fact  that,  with  the  exceptions  that 
will  be  considered,  Christianity  was  openly  preached  in  Jerusalem 
from  the  Day  of  Pentecost  until  the  murder  of  James  the  Brother 
of  the  Lord,  near  the  outbreak  of  the  Jewish  revolution. 

This  glorification  of  one  who  was  crucified  as  a  blasphemer, 
would  seem  to  be  an  equal  blasphemy;  and  therefore  the  tolera- 
tion in  Jerusalem  of  the  constantly  repeated  Apostolic  witness  to 
the  facts  and  issues  of  the  resurrection  is  significant.  It  indicates 
that  the  rulers  can  bring  forward  to  Jewish  inquirers  who  have 
every  interest  to  know  the  full  truth,  no  rebutting  facts  that 
would  satisfactorily  account  otherwise  for  the  open  grave,  the 
empty  tomb,  the  undisturbed  grave  cloths,  the  vanished  body. 
Gamaliel  and  the  Pharisees  in  the  Sanhedrin  a  quarter  of  a  century 
later,  refer  to  no  opposing  fact;  and  at  the  council  in  Jerusalem 
we  hear  that  Pharisees  have  become  converts.    There  are,  however, 

'  See  p.  29,  note  2. 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    151 

three  attempts  to  throttle  the  new  movement:  by  the  Sadducees, 
the  Pharisees,  and  by  the  Herodian  King  Agrippa  I. 

The  inaction  of  the  Sadducean  rulers  at  the  Pentecost  renewal 
of  the  messianic  movement  might  be  partly  accoimted  for  as  a 
politic  non-interference  lest  there  should  be  an  uproar  among  the 
favorably  excited  multitude.  And  for  a  period  it  might  be  ignored 
as  it  was  clearly  not  a  political  but  a  religious  movement  marked 
by  strictest  Jewish  loyalty  and  by  highest  type  of  Jewish  piety. 
The  first  attack  was  occasioned  by  the  new  stage  of  evangeliza- 
tion in  Acts  3.  This  we  have  seen  was  a  renewed  effort  to  win 
converts  from  among  those  who  while  holding  the  disciples  in 
favor,  withheld  their  own  allegiance  partly  by  unwillingness  to 
fulfill  the  rehgious  conditions;  and  probably  more  largely  because 
their  ignorance  of  the  Old  Testament  teaching  of  a  suffering 
messiah  prejudiced  them  against  the  vaUdity  of  the  other  forms 
of  witness  for  the  truth  of  the  Gospel.  Hence  the  emphasis  in 
Peter's  discourse  on  the  prophecies  of  a  suffering  messiah  which 
the  Jews  and  their  rulers  fulfilled  in  ignorance;  next  the  significance 
of  the  miracle  of  healing  as  a  manifestation  of  the  spiritual  gift 
of  the  Apostles  received  from  the  risen  Jesus;  and  still  more  def- 
initely the  preaching  of  the  power  of  his  resurrection  life  as  the 
sole  source  of  salvation,  3,  26;  4, 12,  thus  raising  the  question  of  the 
relation  of  the  Gospel  and  Mosaism  as  means  of  redemption. 

The  sermon  thus  centering  on  the  resurrection  as  prediction, 
historic  fact,  source  of  the  gift  of  miraculous  power,  of  salvation 
and  of  a  general  resurrection,  4,  2,  while  it  increased  the  number 
of  converts  to  five  thousand,  inevitably  provoked  also  the  chal- 
lenge of  the  Sadducean  party  as  to  the  source  and  character  of 
the  healing  of  the  lame  man,  upon  which  this  preaching  of  the 
resurrection  was  based.  It  is  met  directly  by  the  ascription  of 
the  miracle  to  the  invocation  of  the  risen  Jesus  and  by  the  procla- 
mation of  the  fulfillment  of  his  own  prediction  to  the  rulers:  the 
stone  set  at  nought  of  the  builders  is  become  the  head  of  the 
comer.  The  manifested  power  of  the  glorified  Christ  in  the  life 
and  ministry  of  his  Church  is  the  final  witness,  completing  all 
the  other  forms  of  witness.  While  there  could  be  no  denial  of 
the  fact  and  power  of  the  miracle,  the  opponents  refuse  as  in  their 
earlier  rejection  of  the  divine  witness  in  Jesus'  ministry,  to  recog- 
nize its  spiritual  significance  as  a  manifestation  of  the  power  of 


152    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Christ's  resurrection  life.  Their  only  answer  to  the  preaching  of 
the  resurrection  is  to  dismiss  the  Apostles  with  threats  and  a  com- 
mand of  silence. 

And  when  this  first  attack  leads  to  a  new  outburst  of  Christian 
zeal  and  to  successful  propaganda  accompanied  by  spiritual  gifts 
of  heahng,  the  arrest  of  all  the  Apostles  is  again  followed  by  their 
proclamation  of  the  resurrection,  exaltation  and  redemptive 
heavenly  ministry  of  Christ,  witnessed  by  them  and  by  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  beUevers,  5,  30  ff .  Again  there  is  no  opposing 
argument  and  no  allegation  of  facts  which  would  controvert 
GamaUel's  counsel  of  inaction.  The  Apostles  though  scourged 
for  their  disobedience  to  the  command  of  silence  which  is  now 
repeated,  ceased  not  to  preach  both  in  the  Temple  and  privately 
that  the  Christ  is  Jesus. 

GamaUel's  advice  reveals  the  distinct  poUcy  of  the  pharisaic 
party  in  this  Sadducean  first  attack  on  the  issue  of  the  resurrection. 
It  was  not  a  policy  of  indifference  to  the  spread  of  a  messianic 
movement  nor  to  its  preaching  of  resurrection.  They  were  of 
course  interested  in  both.  But  they  refuse  to  accept  or  to  condemn 
the  Gospel  propaganda  on  the  issue  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus. 
They  will  not  agree  that  the  Apostles'  testimony  to  the  fact  of 
the  empty  tomb,  the  appearances,  or  their  claim  of  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  from  the  risen  Jesus,  prove  his  resurrection.  And  this,  not 
because  it  was  incredible  that  God  should  raise  the  dead,  but 
because  it  was  incredible  both  that  God  should  raise  one  who  to 
them  was  a  blasphemer,  and  also  from  their  understanding  of  the 
Old  Testament,  that  he  would  permit  the  Christ  to  die.  Nor  on 
the  other  hand  will  they  agree  to  put  the  Apostles  to  death  on  the 
Sadducean  ground  of  the  impossibility  of  any  resurrection;  or  in 
the  absence,  so  far  as  appears,  of  direct  attack  upon  the  Apostolic 
testimony  and  upon  the  reality  of  their  spiritual  experiences  and 
gifts.  '  Whether  it  be  of  God,'  will  be  determined  for  the  Pharisees 
by  the  tests  which  time  will  bring,  of  the  reality  of  a  divine  work 
in  this  mission.  One  test  will,  to  the  Pharisees,  be  the  continuance 
of  their  loyalty  to  Jewish  institutions  and  of  their  devotion  to 
Jewish  ideals  of  piety.  This  the  disciples  at  present  exhibit. 
They  formed  indeed  a  new  party  among  the  many  strange 
divisions  of  the  Jews  of  the  time;  but  it  was  marked  by  in- 
tense devotion  to  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  temple  worship 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    153 

and  to  the  hope  of  a  messiah  to  come  in  judgment  to  consum- 
mate the  kingdom. 

The  general  Jewish  attack,  in  which  the  Pharisees  doubtless 
joined,  was  first  made  when  Christianity  was  suspected  to  lead 
to  consequences  involving  disloyalty  to  Judaism.  The  bold 
spirit  of  Stephen  had  occasion  in  the  wider  theological  discussions 
in  the  synagogues  of  the  Hellenistic  Jews,  at  which  Saul  of  Tarsus 
might  well  be  present,  to  develop  the  universaHstic  elements  of 
the  Gospel  and  its  true  relations  to  legaUsm  and  sacrificial  wor- 
ship. This  transpires  both  from  the  distorted  charges  of  blas- 
phemous words  against  Moses'  law  and  customs  and  of  the 
destruction  of  the  temple,  6, 14, ;  and  equally  from  Stephen's  de- 
fense that  the  religion  of  Israel  began  with  the  promise  of  universal 
blessing  through  Abraham's  seed  ages  before  Moses;  that  in 
Moses'  age,  the  sanctuaries  were  outside  the  Holy  Land;  that 
Solomon  and  Isaiah  asserted  that  heaven  was  God's  true  temple; 
that  they  and  their  fathers  resisting  the  Holy  Spirit,  had  not 
kept  the  law  of  Moses,  but  had  rejected  him  and  killed  the  prophets; 
as  now  they  had  killed  the  Prophet  of  whom  Moses  spoke  and  the 
Righteous  One  of  the  prophets'  predictions:  the  Son  of  Man  now 
standing  at  God's  right  hand. 

That  such  consequences  of  Christian  teaching  would  especially 
arouse  pharisaic  opposition  and  impel  them  to  agree  to  the  death 
of  its  preacher,  is  seen  in  the  approving  presence  of  GamaUel's 
pupil,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  at  Stephen's  martyrdom,  and  in  the  per- 
secution of  the  Jerusalem  Church.  Saul's  own  persecution  by 
the  Jews  at  Damascus  and  by  the  Hellenist  Jews  at  Jerusalem, 
although  other  Christians  were  unmolested,  indicates  that  his 
conversion  and  his  stay  in  Arabia  had  resulted  in  his  adoption 
of  Stephen's  teaching.  The  Jewish  and  Judaistic  opposition  to 
it  will  meet  us  in  the  consideration  of  Paul's  mission  work. 

The  third  attack  came  from  the  Herodian  King  Agrippa.  No 
definite  occasion  for  it  is  recorded.  From  the  brief  mention  that 
James  was  killed  with  the  sword,  it  has  been  assumed  that  the 
persecution  was  for  poUtical  reasons  rather  than  on  charges  of 
blasphemy  or  disloyalty  to  Judaism.  The  new  king  is  known  to 
have  revived  and  developed  the  definite  Herodian  nationalist 
policy;  with  this  he  inherited  the  Herodian  suspicion  of  the  spread- 
ing messianic  movement,  with  its  possible  dangers  both  for  his 


154    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

own  rule  and  also  for  the  relations  between  the  Jewish  State  and 
the  Empire.    In  addition,  however,  to  poUtical  motives  in  thus 
attacking  the  organization  by  the  murder  of  its  prominent  leaders, 
Agrippa  would  no  doubt  sympathize  with  the  general  Jewish 
attitude  at  this  time  towards  the  Church.    He  has  been  called  '  a 
model  of  Pharisaic  piety ' ;  and  it  is  possible,  in  view  of  the  state- 
ment that  his  persecution  pleased  the  Jews,  that  his  attack  may 
also  have  been  connected  with  Pharisaic  and  general  Jewish  in- 
dignation that  the  Jerusalem  Church,  cp.  Acts  8-11,  was  coun- 
tenancing the  admission  into  Jewish  Christian  fellowship,  not 
only  of  the  hated  Samaritans  but  even  of  the  heathen  Greeks  of 
Antioch.    But  after  the  king's  death  we  hear  no  more  of  perse- 
cutions at  Jerusalem,  where,  21,  20,  the  many  thousands  of  Jewish 
believers  are  all  zealous  for  the  law ;  and  where  they  repudiated  a 
Christianity  which  would  teach  to  Jews  apostasy  from   Moses, 
as  Paul  was  alleged  to  preach.    It  should  not  be  overlooked  that 
even  at  Paul's  arrest,  no  attack  was  made  on  the  Jerusalem  Church. 
Freedom  from  further  Palestinian  Jewish  attack  points  both  to 
Sadducean  failure  to  prevent  the  preaching  of  Jesus  and  the  resur- 
rection, and  to  the  zealous  loyalty  to  Judaism  and  the  Jewish 
State,  of  the  mass  of  Palestinian  Christians.     But  whenever  in 
Jerusalem  and  wherever  in  Paul's  preaching  in  the  Dispersion, 
that  zeal  was  suspected,  all  the  objections  of  unbelieving  and 
relatively  tolerant  Jews  burst  forth.    Thus  in  the  South  Galatian 
cities,  13,  45,  upon  Paul's  preaching  in  the  synagogue  crowded  with 
the  heathen  come  to  hear  his  second  sermon  in  which  as  in  the 
climax  of  the  first  sermon,  vs.  38  f.,  he  would  develop  the  uni- 
versalism  of  the  Gospel  and  its  emanicipation  from  legalism,  the 
Jews  were  filled  with  fi^Xos.    This  is  more  in  this  connection  than 
the  'envy'  of  the  Authorized  Version.    It  is  the  'jealousy'  of  the 
Revised  Versions,  and  definitely  a  zeal  for  God:  for  God's  faithful- 
ness to  his  promises  to  his  elect  nation  observing  his  law.    It  is 
jealousy  and  zeal   for  the  divine   privileges  of  Israel.     Paul's 
preaching,  they  are  convinced,  ignores  and  denies  them.    Filled 
with  this  zeal,  'they  denied  the  things  spoken  by  Paul  and  blas- 
phemed.'   Now  the  main  portion  of  the  reported  speech,  as  was 
fitting  to  the  occasion,  was  the  meaning  of  the  Old  Testament 
messianic  prophecy  and  its  fulfillment  in  Jesus.     Their  denial 
therefore  would  most  naturally  refer  to  their  denial  of  the  witness 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    155 

of  prophecy.  And  their  blasphemy  likewise  would  apply  to  the 
Apostle's  presentation  of  the  witness  of  Christ's  life  and  resurrec- 
tion, cp.  Knowling,  pXaaipTjixovvres  nomen  Christi,  and  would  be 
a  renewal  of  the  usual  Jewish  attacks  upon  it.  In  the  Corinthian 
synagogue  also,  18,  6,  the  result  of  his  customary  preaching  to 
Jews  and  Greeks  was  the  same  exhibition  of  Jewish  zeal:  they 
opposed  and  blasphemed.  From  the  immediate  context  it  again 
appears  that  their  opposition  was  to  his  interpretation  of  mes- 
sianic prophecy;  and  their  blaspheming  was  against  Paul's  claim 
that  the  Christ  of  prophecy  was  the  Jesus  whose  Ufe,  teachings 
and  resurrection  he  preached  to  them.^  Their  zeal,  as  here  in 
Corinth,  in  South  Galatia  and  as  expressly  stated,  in  Thessalonica, 
led  also  to  denunciations  of  the  Apostle  to  the  civil  authorities  on 
the  charge  of  law  breaking  or  disloyalty,  which  will  be  considered 
later. 

The  attacks  of  the  Dispersion  Jews  are  the  repetition  of  the 
original  and  constant  Jewish  attacks  upon  the  Gospel.  All  the 
essential  features  of  Jewish  opposition  to  Christ  were  already 
present  and  had  been  urged  against  him  in  his  lifetime,  as  was 
discussed  in  connection  with  Polemic  in  the  Gospel.  They  are 
all  presupposed  by  his  crucifixion.  In  the  Apostolic  preaching  of 
the  resurrection,  the  difficulties  of  belief  in  it-were  obvious  to  the 
Jews  at  its  first  proclamation.  There  was  no  occasion  as  Baldens- 
perger  assumes  in  his  Urchristliche  Apologie  for  Jewish  unbeHevers 
gradually  to  present  new  arguments  against  it,  to  be  met  as  gradu- 
ally by  newly  invented  proofs.  The  three  attacks  on  the  Jerusa- 
lem Church  were  the  outgrowths  of  the  original  and  persistent 
rejection  and  calumniation  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  his  resurrec- 
tion and  of  the  atpeaLs  of  his  disciples,  by  the  ruling  classes.  The 
advance  of  the  mission  to  the  Jewish  dispersion,  with  the  bold 
preaching  of  the  universalism  of  the  Gospel  salvation,  was  met 
at  once  by  the  contradiction  and  blasphemy  current  in  Palestinian 
Judaism.  Dispersion  Jews  might  have  some  acquaintance  with 
it  from  their  attendance  at  the  Jerusalem  festivals;  but  we  learn 

'  The  additions  in  D  to  the  text  of  both  these  passages  are  based  on  a 
similar  understanding  of  the  Jews'  attack.  13,  45  is  introduced  with  iroKvv 
re  \6yov  iroLrjaanivov  Trepl  rod  Kvpiov;  in  18,  5  after  rdv  XpLarop 
*lr)(Tovv,  TToXXoO  6e  \6yov  yevojiivov  Kal  ypa<pS>v  SupixrjvevofjLipojp 
is  inserted  before  vs.  6. 


156    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

from  Justin  Martyr  and  Eusebius  of  their  equipment  for  opposi- 
tion by  an  official  counter  mission  from  Jerusalem  before  its  fall.* 
We  know  of  Saul's  Jewish  mission  against  Christians  in  strange 
cities.  Some  ten  years  later  he  himself  experiences  a  definite 
Jewish  denunciation  of  his  Gospel  in  distant  Galatia;  later  a  well- 
organized  attack  at  the  beginnings  of  his  work  in  Thessalonica; 
and  at  Rome  he  hears  from  the  Jewish  officials  that  the  Christian 
sect  is  everywhere  spoken  against.  These  continuous  attacks 
illustrate  Justin's  statement  to  the  Jew  Trypho,  c.  117,  'that  the 
high  priests  of  the  Jews  and  their  teachers  have  caused  the  name 
of  the  Son  of  God  to  be  profaned  and  blasphemed  in  every  land ' ; 
and  this,  c.  17,  'by  sending  chosen  men  saying  that  a  godless  and 
lawless  party  of  Christians  had  appeared:  disciples  of  a  Galilean 
deceiver,  TrKavos,  who  stole  his  crucified  body  by  night  from  the 
tomb  and  deceive  men  by  asserting  that  he  is  risen  and  ascended.' 
These  'appointed'  Jewish  missionaries  further  claim  that  the 
Galilean  'taught  the  godless,  lawless  and  unholy  doctrines  which 
the  Jews  urge  against  those  who  confess  him  to  be  Christ,  teacher 
from  God  and  Son  of  God.'  Eusebius,  quoting  from  writings  of 
the  ancients,  more  definitely  reports  that  Jewish  priests  and  elders 
sent  'apostles'  with  formal  letters  to  Jews  of  every  country 
calumniating  the  preaching  concerning  our  Saviour,  rdv  irepi  rod 
cijjTrjpos  \6yov,  commanding  Jews  not  to  receive  it,  and  slandering 
the  teaching  of  Christ  as  a  atpccrts,  new  and  alien  to  God.' 

These  thorough-going  attacks  on  the  fundamental  faith  by 
Jerusalem  and  Dispersion  Jews  had  to  be  met  at  once  in  the 
apologetic  element  of  the  mission  preaching;  and  as  we  have  seen 
by  the  general  method  of  exposition  of  messianic  prophecy  as 
pointing  to  the  suffering  and  exaltation  of  messiah;  of  showing 
thereupon  that  this  Christ  is  Jesus,  with  the  manifold  forms  of 
witness  in  his  life  and  ministry,  with  the  witness  of  his  resurrection 
from  the  Scriptures,  the  Apostolic  testimony  and  the  sending  of 
the  Spirit  as  a  gift  of  a  new  redeemed  life  in  believers  and  as  the 
source  of  their  spiritual  gifts.  All  necessary  details  of  this  apologia 
would  naturally  be  developed  in  the  preparation  of  converts  for 
admission  to  Church  fellowship.  Their  acceptance  of  baptism 
and  the  accompanying  direct  certitude  of  faith,  0€palo)(ns,  shows 

*The  texts  from  Justin's  Dialogue  wUh  Trypho,  cc.  17,108.117  and  from 
Eusebius  on  Isaiah  18,  1  are  given  by  Harnack,  Mission,  etc.,  I.,  68  f. 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    157 

that  the  Jewish  attacks  on  the  fundamentals  of  faith  had  been 
convincingly  repelled  by  the  defense  of  the  Gospel. 

The  further  estabUshment  of  faith  has  been  shown  to  be  not  a 
renewed  and  advancing  apologetic  against  the  persistent  denials 
of  it,  but  against  various  forms  of  perversion  of  it.     One  such 
special  need  of  estabUshment  arose  in  connection  with  the  Jewish 
difficulty  which  has  been  presented  as  the  source  of  Pharisaic 
persecution  in  Jerusalem  and  of  the  denial  in  the  Dispersion 
synagogues  of  Christian  messianism  and  of  Jesus'  messiahship. 
It  was  their  zeal  for  the  divine  privileges  of  Israel.    Stephen's  and 
Paul's  universal  Gospel  seemed  in  its  consequences  to  involve  a 
denial  of  the  fideUty  of  God  to  his  promises  to  Israel.    When  it 
came  to  a  conflict  between  that  fideUty  and  any  other  teaching 
or  gospel  'let  God  be  true  and  every  man  a  Uar.'    In  Paul's  direct 
grappUng  with  this  difficulty  he  bears  fervent  witness  to  the  Jews 
that  they  have  a  zeal  for  God,  but  not  according  to  knowledge, 
Rom.  10, 1  f .    He  therefore  will  estabUsh  the  Romans  by  devoting 
the  most  profound  chapters  of  his  epistle,  9-11,  to  the  problem 
of  the  election  of  Israel  to  the  sevenfold  glories  which  he  names 
as  he  begins,  and  as  the  crown  of  all:  IsraeUtes,  of  whom  is  Christ 
as  concerning  the  flesh,  who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever. 
The  genius  of  F.  C.  Baur  and  the  penetrating  insight  of  Dr.  Hort 
recognized  the  fundamental    importance  of^  these  chapters  in 
Paul's  estabUshment  of  Christian  faith.    It  is  quite  true  as  Sanday 
objects  that  they  are  not  the  heart  of  the  Epistle,  which  is  Chapter 
8  with  its  positive  statement  of  the  life  of  justification  by  faith. 
They  do  not  form  the  climax  to  which  the  rest  of  the  Letter  is  an 
introduction,  especially  if  the  Letter  is  viewed  with  Baur  as  a 
polemic  against  Roman  Judaizing  Christians.      But  they  are 
aimed  at  the  heart  of  Jewish  attack  on  the  Gospel.    They  are  of 
primary  importance  for  the  New   Testament  claim  of  the  con- 
tinuity of  revelation  in  the  law  and  prophets  and  Gospel.    San- 
day's  conclusion,  Romans,  p.  xlv,  that  the  section  treats  of  'a 
problem  which  belongs  rather  to  the  circumference  of  St.  Paul's 
thought  than  to  the  center,'  is  unassailable  if  the  basis  of  the  com- 
parison is  the  essential  relation  of  the  center  and  circumference, 
but  not  if  it  meant  to  suggest  the  distance  of  the  teaching  of  these 
chapters   from   the   central  thought  of  the  Apostle.    Something 
of  this  last  suggestion  seems  to  be  impUed  in  his  accompanying 


158    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN^THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

statement  that  *  it  is  not  so  much  a  part  of  his  fundamental  teach- 
ing as  a  consequence  arising  from  its  coUision  with  an  imbelieving 
world ' ;  although  to  this  must  be  added  his  final  sunmiary  of  the 
chapters,  p.  li,  as  tracing  the  method  and  plan  of  the  purpose  of 
God  'to  sum  up  all  things  in  Christ.' 

The  Apostle's  sense  of  the  fimdamental  importance  of  the 
problem  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  he  states  it  in  the  opening  of  the 
third  chapter  before  proceeding  to  his  intervening  six  chapters  on 
justification  by  faith;  and  completes  the  teaching  of  those  chap- 
ters by  the  exposition  of  his  Christian  philosophy  of  God's  eternal 
purpose  of  imiversal  redemption,  to  be  reaUzed  Kar'  €K\oyr]v,  by 
the  method  of  election.  The  Jewish  objection  he  had  to  meet 
is:  Jewish  refusal  to  accept  justification  by  faith  in  Christ,  in- 
volves in  Paul's  teaching  that  God  has  rejected  his  elect  people; 
that  his  word  of  sure  mercies  and  everlasting  covenant  favor  has 
failed ;  yes,  proves  that  God  is  unfaithful  to  his  promise.  Evidently 
the  underlying  question  here,  is  the  real  nature  of  election.  The 
Apostle  affirms  it  in  absolute  terms.  It  is  an  essential  principle 
of  the  reUgion  of  Israel;  of  the  idea  of  a  Church  of  God:  his  se- 
lection, training  and  use  of  men  to  be  his  instruments  in  accom- 
pUshing  his  will  that  all  men  should  be  saved  and  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  The  nature  of  election  is  to  be  learned 
from  examples  of  divine  elections.  It  is  not  mechanical;  not  a 
matter  of  mere  physical  descent,  as  is  witnessed  in  the  election  of 
Isaac,  although  Ishmael  too  is  Abraham's  son.  Nor  is  it  based 
on  himian  merit  of  works,  in  view  of  the  pre-natal  election  of 
Jacob  instead  of  Esau.  Elections  and  rejections  depend  on  the 
sovereign  grace  of  God  who  chooses  Moses  and  overrules  hardened 
Pharaoh  and  hardened  Israel  as  instruments  to  work  out  the 
eternal  purpose  which  is  accomplished  by  this  method  of  choice, 
if  Kar*  iKXoyiiv  wpdOeaLS  tov  deov. 

There  is,  however,  no  injustice  in  these  elections  and  rejections 
in  view  of  his  longsuffering  which  enables  him  to  reveal  the  wealth 
of  his  glory  on  vessels  of  mercy,  believing  Jews  and  Gentiles  to 
whom  the  Gospel  came  by  reason  of  Jewish  rejection  and  per- 
secution of  it.  The  cause  of  the  partial  and  temporary  rejection 
of  Israel  is  their  zeal,  without  knowledge,  for  righteousness  by 
mosaic  legaUsm;  which  renders  them  deaf  to  Christ's  Gospel  of 
universal  salvation.    Yet  the  rejected  portion  of  Israel  will  at 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    159 

length  be  saved  by  means  of  the  elect  remnant.  For  it  is  pre- 
disposed for  re-engrafting  into  spiritual  Israel,  because  still  pos- 
sessing the  zeal  for  God,  of  the  root  and  first  fruits  of  the  patri- 
archs' devotion.  When  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  is  come,  the 
heathen  world's  conversion  to  Israel's  God  by  the  Gospel  which 
came  to  them  upon  Israel's  rejection  of  it,  will  'provoke  Israel  to 
jealousy.'  They  will  have  a  new  zeal  for  God  thus  witnessing  to 
the  Gospel  as  the  power  of  the  world's  salvation;  will  themselves 
accept  that  Gospel,  and  thus  by  God's  redeeming  methods  of 
elections,  all  Israel  shall  be  saved. 

Thus  were  the  Roman  Christians  established  in  faith  against 
this  Jewish  attack  caused  by  blind  zeal  for  God.  But  while  they 
were  reading  the  Epistle,  its  writer  was  journeying  towards 
Jerusalem  where  this  Jewish  zeal  would  seek  his  life  from  the 
Roman  State. 

2.  THE  CONFLICT  WITH  THE  STATE 

The  conflict  of  Christianity  and  the  Roman  State  in  the  period 
covered  by  the  Gospels  and  Acts,  is  presented  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  due  to  Jewish  attack  and  instigation.  The  apologists  of 
the  second  and  third  centuries  likewise  ascribe  later  persecution  to 
Jewish  denunciation.  Their  charge  is  summed  up  in  Tertulhan's 
statement,  Scorpiace  10:  synagogas  Judseorum  fontes  persecu- 
tionum.  In  the  concluding  section  of  Acts,  their  lawyer  TertuUus 
presents  to  the  Procurator  Felix  the  strongest  Jewish  case  against 
the  Apostle  whom  they  hate  for  his  preaching  of  universal  salvation 
and  freedom  from  legaUsm.  He  adroitly  formulates  four  charges 
under  whichjthe  religious  controversy  is  presented  as  a  case  affecting 
Roman  law  and  administration,  24, 1  ff.  Paul  is  first  denounced  as 
to  his  personal  character.  He  is  Xot/xos :  a  pest,  and  as  such  spread- 
ing social  disorder,  for  the  repression  of  which,  Felix  had  received  the 
flattering  exordium  of  vs.  2  f .  Next,  his  propaganda  is  a  stirring  up 
of  dissensions  or  tumults,  aTaaeLs,  among  the  Jews  throughout  the 
world.  It  was  a  repetition  of  the  charge  at  Thessalonica,  17,  6,  of 
being  disturbers  of  law  and  order  in  the  Roman  Empire:  of  'turning 
the  world  upside  down,'  avaaraTioaavTes.  And  here  too  it  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  charge  intimating  disloyalty  to  Rome :  he  is  a  ringleader 
of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes,  whose  leader  was  crucified  for  sedition. 
Finally  he  had  attempted  to  profane  the  Temple;  thus  defying  the 


160    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

imperial  sanction  and  privileges  of  Judaism  as  a  religio  licita,  and 
thereby  proving  that  his  sect  had  no  share  in  the  Roman  recogni- 
tion and  protection  of  Israel's  religion. 

These  charges  made  midway  in  the  ApostoUc  Age  offer  a  con- 
venient basis  for  the  consideration  of  the  estabUshment  of  the 
faith  in  conflicts  with  the  State.  They  sum  up  the  charges  made 
to  Roman  officials  in  the  constant  Jewish  attacks  upon  the  Apostle 
in  the  mission  field.  In  their  range  and  connection  they  embrace 
the  outstanding  topics  of  the  later  charges  in  the  State  persecutions: 
personal  crimes,  contempt  for  law  and  established  social  order, 
disloyalty  to  the  Imperial  government  and  to  the  State  religion. 
They  already  suggest  the  famiUar  later  terms:  the  flagitia  and 
odium  humani  generis,  in  Tacitus,  Ann.  15,  44;  the  genus  hominum 
superstitionis  novce  ac  maleficoe,  in  Suetonius,  Nero,  16.  They  are 
reflected  in  TertulUan's  expostulation:  *you  consider  a  Christian 
to  be  a  man  guilty  of  all  crimes;  an  enemy  of  the  gods,  emperors, 
laws,  moraUty  and  of  all  nature,'  ApoL,  2.  And  they  are 
especially  significant  as  they  substantially  repeat  the  Jewish 
charges  against  Christ  before  Pilate.  It  has  often  been  pointed 
out  that  Luke  recognizes  this  fact,  in  view  of  the  parallels  in 
the  literary  structure  of  his  accounts  of  the  trials  of  Jesus  and  of 
his  Apostle. 

The  crucifixion  of  Christ  under  Pontius  Pilate  and  Paul's  ap- 
peal to  Caesar  for  judgment  on  the  Jewish  charges  against  him, 
bear  witness  to  the  inevitableness  of  an  ultimate  conflict,  under  the 
historic  conditions,  between  the  Gospel  and  the  Roman  State. 
Christianity  was  bom  into  a  reUgious-poUtical  problem.  Messiah 
and  kingdom  are  terms  exploited  both  by  the  Sanhedrin  at  Pilate's 
judgment  seat  and  the  Jews  before  the  politarchs  of  Thessalonica, 
as  charged  with  political  significance  and  references.  These 
references  range  from  the  materialistic  ideals  of  the  Zealots,  down 
through  the  Pharisaic  conceptions,  to  the  spiritualized  messian- 
ism  of  the  Quiet  in  the  Lord,  as  expressed  in  the  Magnificat  and 
Benedictus.  Here,  messianic  redemption  includes  'scattering  the 
proud,  putting  down  potentates,  exalting  humbled  and  suffering 
Israel;  salvation  from  our  enemies,  that  we  might  serve  God  in 
holiness  and  righteousness  under  the  coming  messianic  king.' 
Throughout  his  ministry  Christ  was  transforming  even  this 
spiritualized  messianism  in  his  preaching  of  the  kingdom  and  in 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTE^RNAL  OPPOSITIONS    161 

making  known  its  mysteries.  The  beatitudes  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  reveal  the  true  ideal  of  the  kingdom.  But  the  inevitable 
conflict  with  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  already  foreshadowed  in 
the  third  temptation,  is  declared  in  the  beatitude  on  those  who  are 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake  and  for  Christ's  sake.  The 
relation  of  his  disciples  to  the  State  was  fixed  for  them  in  his  own 
example  and  teaching.  There  must  be  recognition,  loyalty  and 
support  of  the  State :  render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  be  Caesar's. 
Equally,  is  his  conunand  of  absolute  devotion  to  the  things  of  God. 
Along  with  this  two-fold  relation  and  duty,  he  gives  on  the  same 
day  a  direct  prediction  of  a  conflict  in  fulfilling  it.  "Ye  shall  be 
brought  before  governors  and  kings  for  my  sake, "  Mk.  13,  9.  And 
under  this  persecution,  they  must  submit:  'in  your  patience  ye 
shall  win  your  souls,'  Lk.  21, 19.  Most  directly,  however,  does  he 
reveal  the  relation  of  his  kingdom  to  the  State,  when  he  is  himself 
brought  before  the  Roman  governor.  'Art  thou  a  king?  Thou 
sayest  that  I  am  a  king.  To  this  end  was  I  bom  that  I  should  bear 
witness  to  the  truth.  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world, '  John  18, 
36  ff.  And  in  19,  11  in  reply  to  Pilate's  claim  of  authority  he 
asserts  'the  real  relation  of  the  civil  and  theocratic  powers:  Pilate's 
judgment  was  legally  decisive;  but  his  right  to  exercise  authority 
was  derived,  not  inherent.  Human  government  is  only  valid  as 
the  expression  of  the  divine  will.  He  who  exercises  it  is  responsible 
to  a  higher  power.'  ^ 

Before  considering  the  attitude  of  the  Apostolic  Church  to  the 
State  as  based  on  these  principles,  reference  must  be  made  to  the 
persistent  claim  that  the  New  Testament  account  of  conflicts  with 
the  Empire  is  not  a  historical  picture,  but  is  constructed  with  an 
apologetic  aim.  It  is  asserted  that  in  order  to  defend  Christianity 
from  the  suspicion  of  being  a  revolutionary  movement,  since  the 
crucifixion  proclaims  the  fact  that  its  leader  was  executed  by  the 
Romans  for  sedition,  the  history  of  the  passion  in  the  Gospels  and 
Acts  has  been  framed  so  as  to  excuse  the  Romans,  thus  winning  the 
favor  of  Roman  officials;  and  so  as  to  make  Pilate  a  witness  to 
Christ's  innocence,  thus  freeing  his  followers  from  suspicion  of 
disloyalty.    This  view  is  stated  in  general  terms  by  Canney,  Enc. 

'  Westcott,  Gospel  accdg.  to  St.  John,  in  loc.  See  also  his  essay  in  Epistles 
of  St.  John,  The  Two  Empires:  The  Church  and  the  World,  pp.  249  fif.;  and 
Sanday-Headlam,  Romans,  pp.  369  ff.,  The  Church  and  the  Civil  Power. 


162    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Biblica,  4160  f.,  and  is  summarized  more  definitely  by  Weinel:* 
^'Especially  in  the  Third  Gospel  and  Acts  are  found  declarations 
that  were  clearly  to  protect  Christianity  against  accusations  of  a 
revolutionary  disposition  and  attitude. "  In  Acts  we  have  "  not  the 
picture  of  history,  but  the  tendency  to  prove  to  the  higher  circles 
of  Romans  for  whom  Luke  has  intended  his  book,  that  the  first 
Roman  officials  with  whom  Christianity  came  in  contact  .  .  . 
fully  recognized  its  harmlessness  for  the  State. " 

Against  the  assumption  underlying  this  view,  that  the  Third 
Gospel  and  Acts  are  apologies  to  the  heathen,  we  again  recall  the 
fact  that  they  are  not  addressed  to  unbeUevers,  but  are  written  for 
the  estabUshment  of  the  faith  of  disciples.  Further,  an  examina- 
tion of  the  unquestioned  facts  reveals  no  occasion  for  such  an 
apologetic  tendency  as  is  alleged.  Neither  before  nor  after  the 
crucifixion,  did  the  Romans  regard  Christianity  as  a  seditious 
movement.  Pilate  was  in  office  from  the  ministry  of  the  Baptist 
until  the  death  of  Stephen.  He  would  have  full  information  con- 
cerning the  ministry  of  Christ,  yet  never  interfered  with  him. 
Even  after  the  crucifixion  he  ignored  the  preaching  of  the  Apostles. 
His  attitude  is  expressed  by  the  title  on  the  Cross.  It  was  the 
Roman  official's  mockery  and  contempt  both  for  the  Jewish 
teacher  and  for  the  Jewish  messianic  hope  and  religion.  He  could 
scorn  a  movement  opposed  by  all  classes  of  Jews  in  authority;  by 
the  Jerusalem  crowds,  who  would  be  the  most  intense  nationaUsts; 
by  the  pilgrim  hosts  who  were  Ustless;  and  by  Herod,  whose 
mockery  of  Christ  with  a  royal  robe  expressed  not  only  the  Te- 
trarch's  scorn  of  Christ's  person,  but  also  of  the  political  sig- 
nificance of  the  movement.  Pilate's  successor  Festus  takes  the 
same  position.  He  speaks  of  the  dispute  concerning  the  resur- 
rection. Acts  25,  19,  as  merely  '  concerning  a  certain  Jesus  who  is 
dead  whom  Paul  affirmed  to  be  alive. '  To  him  the  Jewish  charges 
do  not  involve  disloyalty  to  Rome,  but  are  '  questions  concerning 
their  own  superstition. '  So  Gallic  at  Corinth,  Tacitus  and  Sue- 
tonius at  Rome.  Christianity  was  not  persecuted  as  a  revolution- 
ary movement,  but  as  a  baleful  superstition. 

The  Evangelists  had  therefore  no  occasion  to  disarm  Roman 
suspicion  of  the  disciples'  loyalty;  nor  do  they  betray  an  apolo- 

•  Bib.  Theohgie  des  N.  T.,  %  93.  Die  Apologetik  gegen  das  Heidenthum 
und  den  Staat,  besonders  bei  Lukas,  445  f. 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    163 

getic  tendency,  increasing  from  Mark  onwards,  to  excuse  Pilate 
and  win  Roman  favor.  The  stress,  in  the  narratives  of  the  trial,  is 
on  the  Jews'  rejection  of  their  Messiah,  even  when  Pilate  was 
wilUng  to  release  Jesus.  In  Mark's  very  abridged  account  the  two 
controlling  interests  are,  first,  Pilate's  mockery  of  the  charge  of 
sedition  by  his  scornful  use  of  the  title  'King  of  the  Jews'  as 
addressed  to  Jesus,  15,  2,  and  twice  to  the  crowds,  vss.  9  and  12; 
and,  second,  in  the  principal  section,  6-15,  the  Jews'  choice  of  a 
murderer  in  preference  to  their  Christ,  in  response  to  the  Pro- 
curator's first  offer  to  release  Jesus  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
feast,  and  their  demand  for  his  crucifixion  in  reply  to  the  question, 
'  what  evil  hath  he  done. ' 

In  Luke's  use  of  this  condensed  Markan  narrative,  he  adds  in 
23,  2,  the  meaning  of  the  charge  *  King  of  the  Jews' :  perverting  the 
nation,  forbidding  tribute  and  claiming  to  be  Messiah,  a  king.  As 
introductory  to  the  Herod  section  taken  from  his  special  source 
L,  a  section  *'  which  ought  never  to  have  been  suspected  by  a  sane 
criticism,"  Moffatt,  D.  C.  G.,  II,  755  a,  Luke  reports  from  L.  vs. 
14,^  Pilate's  declaration  of  his  conviction  of  Christ's  innocence, 
which  is  involved  in  Mk.  15,  9.14.  The  Barabbas  passage  is 
abbreviated  from  Mark,  and  with  no  additions  or  heightening  of 
Pilate's  statements  of  Christ's  innocence.  To  his  two  professions, 
the  one  involved  in  Mk.  15,  9  f .  and  the  other  made  in  Mk.  vs.  14, 
Luke  has  added  another  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Herod  section, 
vs.  14;  and  he  therefore  states  in  vs.  22,  in  reply  to  the  demand  for 
crucifixion,  that  Pilate  has  said  three  times, '  I  have  found  no  cause 
of  death  in  him. '  Thus,  as  was  noted  in  Mark's  account,  Luke's 
interest  is  likewise  first,  in  Pilate's  acquittal  of  Christ  of  the  charge 
of  sedition,  which  is  simply  in  accordance  with  his  noninter- 
ference with  the  Gospel  preaching  before  and  after  the  crucifixion ; 
and  next,  specially  in  the  fact  of  the  Jewish  rejection  of  Christ  and 
choice  of  Barabbas,  in  the  section  which  is  both  introduced  by  and 
concluded  with  the  description  of  him  as  seditious  and  as  a  mur- 
derer. Luke's  definite  interest  in  stating  Pilate's  threefold  pro- 
fession of  Christ's  innocence  is  indicated  in  the  specially  emphatic 
forms  of  his  report  of  the  Jewish  repudiation  of  them.  On  his 
first  profession,  vs.  4,  'they  were  the  more  urgent,  eiriaxvov,  saying 
he  stirreth  up  the  people. '  The  word  eiriaxvov  is  used  here  only  in 
^  B.  Weiss,  QueUen  d.  Lukasevg.,  p.  225. 


164    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  New  Testament.  On  the  second  profession,  vs.  18, '  they  cried 
out  all  together,  away  with  this  man.'  'kvUpayov  is  elsewhere 
used  by  Luke  in  4,  33;  8,  28,  of  the  shrieks  of  demoniacs,  and 
TravKKfiBd  is  used  nowhere  else  in  the  Greek  Bible.  To  the  third 
profession  'they  were  urgent  with  loud  voices'  iiriKeivTo  <t)03vaXs 
neyoiXais,  for  his  crucifixion. 

In  Mtw.  27,  11-14,  we  find  only  the  usual  editorial  treatment  of 
the  Markan  examination  passage.  In  the  Barabbas  section,  the 
revision  of  the  Markan  parallels  in  vss.  17  and  20,  emphasizes 
the  deUberate  Jewish  choice  of  Barabbas  and  demand  for  Jesus' 
destruction;  and  the  change  in  vs.  22  from  Mark's  Hhey  cried  out, 
crucify  him'  to  'they  all  say,  let  him  be  crucified,'  shows  that  the 
interest  of  this  Evangelist  also  is  in  emphasizing  a  national  re- 
jection of  the  Christ.  He  omits  Mark's  description  of  Barabbas's 
crimes;  but  makes  two  insertions,  vss.  19  and  24  ff.  Whatever  be 
their  source,  they  serve  no  apologetic  interest  in  the  conflict  of  the 
Church  and  Empire.  A  dream  of  Pilate's  wife  could  contribute 
nothing  to  the  establishment  of  Christ's  innocence.  The  interest, 
in  narrating  Pilate's  washing  of  his  hands,  is  indicated  in  the  reply 
of  'all  the  people,  ttSs  6  Xa6s,  his  blood  be  on  us  and  on  our  chil- 
dren. '  We  thus  can  find  in  the  Synoptics  no  increasing  heighten- 
ing of  the  testimony  of  Pilate  to  Christ's  innocence;  no  excusing  of 
his  cowardice  and  dishonor  as  a  judge,  much  less  an  increasing 
palliation  of  it;  or  any  suggestion  of  an  apologetic  tendency  to 
remove  an  assimied  Roman  suspicion  of  the  treason  of  Christians, 
which  indeed  was  not  the  basis  of  the  State  persecution  of  them. 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel  we  find  the  same  controlling  interests  as 
in  the  Synoptics  in  recording  Pilate's  rejections  and  mockery  of  the 
charge  of  sedition  which  evoke  the  Jewish  rejection  of  their  Mes- 
siah. Three  times  is  recorded  Pilate's  profession  '  I  find  no  crime, 
airla,  in  him.'  The  first  is  made  after  his  examination  of  Jesus, 
18,  38,  when  as  in  Mark  he  entitles  him  in  scorn  of  the  Jewish 
charge  'The  King  of.  the  Jews'  and  offers  to  release  him  after 
custom.  To  this  the  Jewish  answer  is  the  refusal  of  Jesus  and 
the  choice  of  Barabbas,  who  '  was  a  robber. '  The  second  profession 
accompanied  with  the  presentation  of  the  scourged  and  thorn- 
crowned  Jesus,  calls  from  the  Jews  the  cries  'Crucify'  which  are 
met  by  his  repudiation  of  them  because  of  his  third  profession,  and 
by  his  efforts  to  release  him  in  spite  of  the  Jewish  charge  of  bias- 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    165 

phemy.  His  final  condemnation  of  Christ  is  the  result  of  the  Jewish 
threat  of  accusation  of  his  own  disloyalty.  But  the  EvangeUst's 
interest  in  19, 12-15  is  clearly  not  apologetic,  since  vs.  .12  is  not  a 
defense  of  Christian  loyalty,  but  a  Jewish  denial  of  it;  nor  is  it  in 
presenting  an  excuse  for  Pilate's  criminal  cowardice;  but  it  is 
shown  in  the  climax  vs.  15,  'the  high  priests  answered,  we  have  no 
king  but  Csesar ' :  the  apostasy  of  the  Jewish  people  in  rejecting  the 
Christ.  " The  sentence  '  we  have  no  king  but  Caesar'  is  the  formal 
abdication  of  the  messianic  hope.  They  first  rejected  Jesus  as  the 
Christ,  and  then,  driven  by  the  irony  of  circumstances,  they 
rejected  the  Christ  altogether,"  Westcott,  in  loc. 

The  same  absence  of  apologetic  aim  is  to  be  noted  in  the  refer- 
ences to  the  crucifixion  in  Acts.  Of  the  twelve  passages  relating  to 
it,  two  are  general  statements:  whom  they  killed;  who  is  dead, 
10,  39;  25,  19.  Five  ascribe  the  crucifixion  to  the  Jews  or  their 
rulers,  2,  36;  3,  17;  4,  10;  5,  28.30.  Five  accuse  the  Jews  in  con- 
nection with  Pilate.  Of  these  7,  52  states  that  the  Jews  were  the 
betrayers,  TrpoSorat,  i.  e.,  to  Pilate,  and  murderers  of  Christ.  In 
Pisidian  Antioch  Paul  mentions  that  the  Jerusalem  Jews  and  their 
rulers  asked  Pilate  that  he  should  be  slain,  13,  28.  In  4,  27, 
Herod  and  Pilate  with  the  Gentiles  and  the  peoples  of  Israel  were 
gathered  together  to  accomplish  God's  will.  The  Jews,  2,  23, 
killed  Christ  by  the  hands  of  lawless  men,  or  'men  without  the 
law ' ;  in  either  case  no  flattering  reference  or  persuasive  apologetic 
to  Romans.  In  only  one  passage,  3,  15,  is  it  stated  that  Pilate 
desired  to  release  Jesus.  It  is  imbedded  in  a  statement,  13  b-15, 
which  is  closely  parallel  to  the  Markan  Barabbas  section,  Mk.  15, 
6-14;  and  like  it,  it  is  interested  not  in  defending  Pilate,  but  in  em- 
phasizing in  connection  with  his  offer  of  release  of  Jesus,  the  sin  of 
the  Jews  in  rejecting  the  Holy  and  Righteous  One  and  in  choosing 
a  murderer  instead.  This  then  is  the  direct  interest  of  the  refer- 
ences to  Christ's  death  under  Pontius  Pilate  in  the  Gospels  and 
Acts.  They  are  not  a  veiled  apologetic  to  secure  government  favor 
for  Christianity;  and  surely  not  a  defense  or  excuse  for  a  procurator 
who  put  to  death  a  man  whom  he  believed  to  be  innocent.  Pilate 's 
mockings,  hesitations,  efforts  to  release  and  fear  of  the  charge  of 
conniving  at  sedition,  are  given  as  facts  which  accord  perfectly 
with  the  historical  and  personal  situation,  and  which  are  recorded 
from  the  viewpoint  of  Jewish  rejection  and  murder  of  their  Christ. 


166    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

In  the  second  part  of  Acts,  Paul's  mission  and  trial  brings 
Christianity  into  contact  with  the  Empire.  Weinel,  as  has  been 
stated,  voices  the  persistent  claim  that  Luke's  account  of  this  sub- 
ject is  controlled  by  an  apologetic  interest,  in  this  work  alleged  to 
be  a  defense  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Romans,  to  present  an  unhistorical 
picture  of  Paul's  relations  with  Roman  officials:  That  they  fully 
recognized  the  harmlessness  of  Christianity  for  the  State,  and 
never  condemned  it  upon  examination.  It  was  undoubtedly  one  of 
Luke's  aims  to  make  this  presentation  of  Paul's  relations  with 
officials,  for  the  establishment  of  his  Christian  readers.  But  it 
was  a  subordinate  aim,  Moff  att,  Introd.  303  f . ;  and  neither  proves  a 
dominant  apologetic  interest  in  the  composition  of  Acts,  nor,  much 
less,  that  in  the  treatment  of  this  topic  it  is  historically  untrust- 
worthy. 

It  is  at  once  constructive  for  our  understanding  of  the  later 
chapters  of  Acts,  that  from  the  crucifixion  until  Paul's  arrest  in 
Jerusalem  in  58  a.  d,  there  was  no  interference  with  Christianity 
by  the  Roman  officials  in  Palestine.  While  Rome  granted  local 
government  to  Jews  in  Judea,  it  would  nevertheless  control  action 
in  capital  charges  and  treat  directly  with  sedition  and  neglected 
cases  of  disorder.  Outside  of  Palestine,  from  Antioch  through 
Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  there  was  likewise  no  imperial  government 
opposition  during  the  period  covered  in  Acts.  This  was  partly 
because  Christianity  appeared  as  a  sect  of  the  reUgio  licita  of  the 
Jews;  and  when  repudiated  by  them,  it  was  treated  by  the  author- 
ities either  as  a  matter  for  local  administion  in  case  disorders  were 
occasioned  by  it,  or  as  a  matter  of  religious  dispute,  with  which  the 
State  would  not  interfere.  But  nowhere  does  Luke  betray  any 
tendency  to  represent  local  or  imperial  officers  as  defending  or  sup- 
porting Christianity.  On  the  contrary,  Jewish  opposition  secures 
from  local  rulers  Paul's  expulsion  from  Pisidian  Antioch  and 
Iconium.  The  Roman  magistrates  at  Philippi  condemn  him  to  be 
beaten  and  imprisoned.  Their  quasi-apology  on  the  next  day 
was  not  due  to  any  approval  of  Paul,  but  to  fear  of  their  illegal  pun- 
ishment of  a  Roman  citizen,  and  it  was  accompanied  by  their  in- 
sistence upon  his  expulsion.  At  Thessalonica,  Jews  secure  his  ex- 
pulsion on  the  charges  of  disorder  and  with  insinuations  of  sedition. 
In  view  of  these  four  cases  of  official  condemnation  in  two  principal 
cities  both  of  Asia  Minor  and  Macedon,  the  three  cases  of  absence 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    167 

of  official  condemnation  by  Gallio,  the  Asiarchs  and  Felix,  cease 
to  reveal  a  controlling  interest  of  Acts  to  claim  official  support; 
and  especially  when  they  are  viewed  in  their  context,  details,  and 
evident  aims. 

The  favor  of  the  Pro-consul  Sergius  Paulus  at  Paphos  has  no 
bearing  on  the  present  subject.  The  attack  on  the  Gospel  by 
Elymas  and  PauFs  defense  have  no  political  feature.  Sergius's 
interest  is  personal  and  has  no  apparent  influence,  as  no  further 
work  in  Cyprus  is  undertaken.  It  is,  however,  claimed  that  the 
conduct  of  certain  Asiarchs  at  Ephesus,  19,  31,  betrays  Luke's  in- 
terest to  prove  official  favor  for  Christianity.  But  the  attack  upon 
Paul  is  here  not  political.  As  at  Phihppi,  it  was  occasioned  by  loss 
of  gains  and  by  the  complaint  that  the  gospel  was  contrary  to  their 
traditional  religious  usages  and  beliefs.  Paul  is  given  no  oppor- 
tunity to  present  or  defend  his  cause.  The  Asiarchs  who  besought 
him  not  to  confront  the  mob,  are  simply  stated  to  have  been  his 
friends,  and  not  that  they  were  moved  by  any  favoring  interest  in 
his  Gospel.^  The  town  clerk  in  quieting  the  mob's  complaint,  says 
nothing  in  favor  of  Christianity,  but  instead  rings  the  praises  of 
Ephesian  Artemis.  In  behalf  of  the  two  Christians  who  had  been 
seized,  he  says  only  that  they  are  not  robbers  of  temples  and  not 
blasphemers  of  the  goddess.  His  interest  as  local  official  is  evi- 
dently in  preserving  order,  not  in  vindicating  Paul  or  his  preaching ; 
especially  as  in  vs.  40  no  legal  charge  has  been  made,  and  Paul's 
criticism  of  idol  worship  against  which  Demetrius  protested, 
vs.  26,  was  constantly  made  with  impunity  by  the  wandering 
popular  preachers  of  the  Grseco-Roman  world.  As  in  Paphos 
there  is  no  suggestion  of  any  advancement  of  Christian  interests  by 
this  attack  upon  the  Apostle.  On  the  contrary  it  may  even  be 
recorded  as  a  hindrance  to  the  cause,  if  as  McGiffert  suggests, 
Apos.  Age,  p.  282,  we  are  to  consider  Paul  to  be  referring  to  it  in  the 
terms  of  II  Cor.  1,  8  fP. 

Some  five  years  earlier  occurs  in  Corinth  the  only  instance  in  all 
Paul's  missionary  work  where  direct  contact  with  the  Imperial 
government  is  recorded  by  Luke,  18,  12  ff.  The  Apostle  is  there 
brought  before  the  pro-consul  Gallio  by  the  Jews  on  the  charge  of 
persuading  men  to  worship  God  contrary  to  the  law.  Luke  does 
not  exploit  Gallio's  refusal  to  hear  the  case,  as  any  vindication  of 
'  Cp.  Ramsay,  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  130-134. 


168    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Paul  who  is  not  allowed  to  speak;  or  as  any  official  favor  or  interest 
in  him  and  his  preaching.  The  case  is  dismissed  because  there  is  no 
charge  of  'wrong  against  the  State  or  of  moral  wrong/  Knowling; 
dStKT/jLid  TL  rj  pq.hLovpyy\na  irovrjpbv,  'misdemeanor  or  crime,' 
Ramsay.  The  Jewish  attack  is  concerned  solely  with  questions 
concerning  the  relation  of  Paul's  preaching  to  the  Jewish  religion, 
and  into  these  GalUo  refuses  to  enter,  cp.  Festus,  25, 19.^ 

In  view  therefore  of  the  fact  that  in  these  four  condemnations 
of  Paul  by  the  local  authorities,  and  in  Gallio's  dismissal  of  a  case  in 
which  no  legal  charges  were  presented  and  in  the  town  clerk's 
denial  merely  that  Christians  did  not  insult  the  local  religion,  it  is 
not  possible  to  recognize  any  apology  to  the  heathen  for  the 
Christian  religion,  or  any  interest  in  it,  or  approval  of  it,  by  the 
Roman  officials.  Luke's  special  aim  in  recording  these  incidents 
will,  however,  be  more  Ukely  to  be  indicated  in  connection  with  the 
interests  and  needs  of  his  Christian  readers.  From  Paul's  expulsion 
from  Pisidian  Antioch  onwards,  and  definitely,  at  any  date  as- 
signed to  the  composition  of  Acts,  the  disciples  were  subject  to 
attack  caused  both  by  Jewish  instigation  and  by  Gentile  misunder- 
standing, suspicion  or  contempt.  From  the  first,  they  must  be 
established  in  the  duty  of  accepting  sufferings  under  these  attacks; 
and  equally  they  must  avoid  '  as  much  as  lieth  in  them,'  all  possible 
occasion  of  attack.  Up  to  64  a.  d.  the  conceivable  grounds  of 
accusation  of  them  were  breach  of  loyalty,  personal  immorality, 
attack  upon  or  interference  with  established  religious  usages  and 
social  institutions.  In  the  hortatory  sections  of  the  Epistles  we 
find  repeated  detailed  instructions  for  the  avoidance  of  every  form 
or  appearance  of  evil,  I  Thess.  5,  22,  and  particularly  with  regard 
to  'those  that  are  without.'  And  besides  instruction,  Paul  at  least 
pointed  to  his  own  example  for  imitation  in  this  situation.  Writing 
to  the  Thessalonians  near  the  time  of  the  Jews'  attack  upon  him 
before  Gallio,  he  reminds  them,  II  Thess.  3,  8  ff.;  'ye  yourselves 
know  how  ye  ought  to  imitate  us,  because  we  behaved  not  ourselves 

•  Wendt,  in  loc.  The  behavior  of  Gallio  is,  in  the  meaning  of  Luke,  neither 
an  expression  of  his  leniency;  nor  of  marked  wisdom  in  deciding  as  to  the 
limits  of  his  office,  (Meyer,  de  Wette);  nor  further,  of  a  favorable  disposition 
towards  Paul,  (Overbeck),  which  there  is  nothing  to  indicate;  but  simply  of 
the  sovereign  contempt  which  he  entertains  in  general  towards  the  Jews,  and 
in  particular  towards  their  doctrinal  disputes. 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    169 

disorderly  among  you,'  riraKTrjaaiiev;  and  their  imitation  of  him 
and  of  the  Lord  was,  I  Thess.  1,  6,  in  receiving  the  word  in  much 
tribulation;  and  was  also,  2,  14,  an  imitation  of  the  Judean 
churches,  because  they  suffered  the  same  things.  Again,  writing  to 
Corinth,  I  Cor.  11,  1,  shortly  before  the  Ephesian  riot,  he  calls 
upon  them  to  be  imitators  of  him  as  he  is  of  Christ,  immediately 
following  the  call  10,  32  to  prove  themselves  off enseless,  airp6<T' 
KOTTOL,  to  Jews  and  Greeks  and  to  the  Church  of  God. 

It  therefore  seems  justifiable  to  conclude  that  Luke  has  selected 
the  six  incidents  from  among  many  others  to  which  Paul  alludes 
in  I  Cor.  4,  9;  15,  31;  II  Cor.  6,  5  ff.;  11,  23  ff.,  cp.  Acts  20,  19,  for 
his  readers'  instruction,  imitation  of  the  Apostles  and  Christ  and 
for  their  estabUshment  in  a  situation  in  which,  on  Harnack's 
dating  of  Acts  in  63  a.  d.,  they  were  exhorted  by  Paul  at  the 
same  time  to  be  'children  of  God  without  blemish  in  the  midst 
of  a  crooked  and  perverse  generation,'  Philpp.  2,  15.  The  narra- 
tive of  Paul's  expulsions  from  Antioch  and  Iconium  and  his  suf- 
ferings at  Lystra  is  concluded.  Acts  14,  22,  with  the  record  of  his 
estabhshment  of  the  disciples  with  exhortation  that  'through  many 
tribulations  we  must  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God.'  That  Luke 
had  a  direct  interest  in  thus  recording  the  persecution  by  local 
authorities  and  populace  in  its  relation  to  instruction  of  his  readers 
in  patience  under  tribulation,  is  supported  by  a  precisely  similar 
selection  of  these  incidents  by  Paul  for  Timothy's  imitation  and 
establishment. ^°  The  persecutions  at  PhiUppi  and  Thessalonica 
which  Luke  records  are  also  recalled  to  the  Thessalonians  by  Paul, 
I  Thess.  2,  2;  and  are  followed  in  3,  2  ff.  by  exhortation  for  estab- 
Ushment in  tribulation.  In  the  Gallio  incident  it  may  be  re- 
marked that  its  direct  connection  is  with  the  attacks  of  the  Jews 
in  18,  6  and  12,  and  with  the  vision  of  vs.  10,  'I  am  with  thee  and 
no  man  shall  set  on  thee  to  harm  thee.' 

In  the  selection  of  this  incident  and  of  the  riot  in  Ephesus  con- 
cerning the  Way,  Luke  has  further  opportunity  to  record  not  only 
the  Apostle's  deliverance  out  of  tribulation,  but  to  point  for  the 
disciples'  imitation,  to  his  avoidance  of  occasion  for  attack.    Gallio 

10 11.  Tim,  3, 10.  But  thou  didst  follow,  irapriKoXovdrjcras,  my  teaching  .  .  • 
persecutions,  sufferings;  what  things  befell  me  at  Antioch,  at  Iconium,  at 
Lystra;  what  persecutions  I  endured:  and  out  of  them  the  Lord  deUvered  me. 
Yea,  and  all  that  will  Uve  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  shall  suffer  persecution. 


170    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

states  as  his  policy,  'reason  would  that  I  should  bear  with  you, 
if  it  were  a  matter  of  breach  of  the  law  and  personal  wickedness.' 
The  Jews  bring  no  such  charge  and  GalHo  has  not  otherwise  learned 
of  any  grounds  for  it.  Paul  has  obviously  been  careful  to  observe 
his  own  rules  of  subjection  to  the  higher  powers,  Rom.  13,  1,  and 
to  take  thought  for  things  honorable  in  the  sight  of  all  men,  12, 
17;  or  as  he  wrote  from  Corinth  before  Gallio's  arrival,  'study  to 
be  quiet,  riavxa^^iv;  do  your  own  business,  irpaaaeiv  rd  t5ta;  to 
work  with  your  hands,'  i.  e.,  in  contrast  to  those  who  m  II  Thess.  3, 
11,  work  not  at  all  but  are  busybodies,  irepupya^b^jievoi;  to  walk 
becomingly  eucxiy/ioj'cos  toward  them  that  are  without,'  I  Thess. 
4,  11  ff. 

As  he  has  avoided  any  appearance  of  evil  doing  or  disloyalty 
at  Corinth,  so  at  Ephesus  has  he  been  free  from  any  charge  of 
being  a  busybody  or  aWoTpioewla kotos;  of  intruding  into  and 
interfering  with  the  recognized  local  reUgion.  He  had  so  'at- 
tended to  his  own '  preaching  of  the  Gospel  and  to  his  own  method 
of  criticism  of  idol  worship,  that  the  town  clerk,  19,  36,  states  that 
Christians  have  been  'guilty  by  neither  in  act  nor  in  language  of 
disrespect  to  our  goddess,'  Ramsay. 

It  will  have  been  noticed  that  up  to  this  point  no  charge  has 
been  considered  by  officials  against  the  Christian  movement  as 
a  whole,  that  would  make  membership  in  the  Church  and  bearing 
the  name  of  Christian,  ipso  facto  the  ground  of  persecution.  Such 
a  general  charge  was  indeed  insinuated  by  the  Jews  at  Thessalonica, 
17,  7,  and  no  doubt  elsewhere:  that  the  movement  involved  op- 
position to  Roman  government,  institutions  and  legislation.  But 
the  poUtarchs  show  by  their  release  of  Jason  and  the  rest  simply 
upon  security  taken,  vs.  9,  that  they  recognized  the  charge  had 
no  basis,  but  grew  out  of  disputes  connected  with  Jewish  and 
Christian  messianic  teaching,  cp.  7b,  into  which  like  GaUio  they 
would  spurn  to  enter. 

Tertullus,  however,  as  remarked,  sunmied  up  and  renewed  all 
the  Jewish  accusations  against  Paul;  and  among  them  that  of 
the  poUtical  criminality  of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes,  which  the 
Jews  do  not  recognize  as  rightfully  claiming  a  share  in  the  Roman 
recognition  of  Judaism  as  a  religio  hcita.  It  is  this  charge,  leading 
later  to  the  persecution  of  Christians  as  such,  relating  to  the  re- 
ligious, moral  and  political  character  of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes, 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    171 

which  is  central  in  the  long  account  in  five  chapters  of  Paul's 
arrest,  trials,  defenses  and  appeal.    Claudius  Lysias  reports  that 
the  real  ground  of  Jewish  attack  is  concerning  questions  of  their 
law,  23,  29,  and  not  criminal  or  illegal  acts  worthy  of  death  or 
bonds.     TertuUus  nevertheless  renews  three  such  charges  along 
with  the  charge  against  the  sect.    Paul  directly  defends  himself 
against  the  three  charges  by  pointing  to  his  orderly  personal  be- 
havior in  Jerusalem  where   he  was   worshiping  in  the  Temple, 
and  engaged  nowhere  in  disputings  and  therefore  raising  no  tu- 
mult.    Instead  of  profaning  the  Temple,  he  had  come  bringing 
alms  to  his  nations  and  offerings,  and  was  found  purified  in  the 
Temple.    Both  in  the  examination  before  Felix  and  in  the  subse- 
quent hearings  these  charges  are  considered  as  satisfactorily  re- 
futed.   Like  Lysias  and  Festus,  25,  19,  he  recognizes  that  the  real 
charge  concerns  the  legaHty  of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes:  'This 
I  confess  unto  thee  that  after  the  Way  they  call  alpeo-is,  so  serve 
I  the  God  of  our  fathers,'  24,  14.     He  insists  on  its  genuinely 
Jewish  reUgious  character  in  the  three  features  suggestive  of  what 
is  probably  a  Jewish  propaganda  instruction  adopted  and  adapted 
by  Christian  missionaries.    As  a  Nazarene  or  Christian  as  Agrippa 
terms  him,  his  faith  and  worship  is  directed  towards  the  One  God 
of  the  Jewish  fathers;  his  Christian  hope  is  for  the  resurrection 
at  the  messianic  judgment;  his  Christian  morality  is  to  exercise 
himself  to  have  a  conscience  void  of  offense  in  tiuty  toward  God 
and  man,  24,  14-16.    Finally  he  reminds  the  court  and  his  ac- 
cusers that  no  charge  of  crime,  dSt/cr/pia  was  brought  against  him 
in  the  Sanhedrin.    The  only  remaining  charge  against  him,  then 
and  now,  is  his  preaching  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  i.  e.,  of 
Christ,  and  its  religious  issues,  cp.  Festus,  25,  19. 

But  at  this  point,  Felix  'having  more  exact  knowledge  of  the 
Way'  adjourns  the  case.  Whatever  motives  of  administrative 
policy  or  hope  of  a  bribe  led  to  this  postponement,  it  indicates 
that  the  three  other  charges,  which  it  was  his  clear  duty  to  adjudi- 
cate, were  not  sustained.  And  it  also  strongly  suggests  that  he 
is  unwilling  to  render  a  decision  on  this  new  charge  of  the  illegality 
of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes,  which  would  involve  a  determination 
of  the  intricate  theological  questions  in  dispute;  and  also  of  the 
legal  status  both  of  the  Palestinian  Christians  which  had  been 
hitherto  practically  recognized  by  the  Jews,  and  of  the  Pauline 


172    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Christians  in  the  Dispersion,  who  were  repudiated  by  them  in  the 
person  of  their  leader.  Festus  too  dismisses  as  unfounded  the 
other  charges,  and  recognizes  that  the  case  concerns  'questions 
against  him  of  their  own  superstition  and  of  one  Jesus  who  was 
dead,  whom  Paul  affirmed  to  be  alive.'  In  his  'perplexity  how  to 
inquire  concerning  these  things,'  and  upon  his  proposal  to  favor 
the  Jews  by  deciding  the  issue  in  a  trial  before  himself  at  Jerusalem, 
Paul,  whether  or  not  knowing  of  the  plot  to  murder  him  en  route, 
25,  3,  realizes  the  need  of  a  decision  of  such  a  question  by  higher 
authority;  and  appeals  at  any  risk,  vs.  11,  from  the  incompetence 
and  indecision  of  the  Procurator  to  Caesar. 

Yet  the  question  of  the  charge  on  which  he  is  to  be  sent  to 
Nero  still  remains,  25,  26.  Since  Festus  had  already  dismissed 
the  other  accusations,  25,  19.25,  there  remained  only  the  charge  of 
Paul's  leadership  among  the  Nazarenes,  a  sect  whose  legality  the 
Procurator  had  failed  to  determine.  Agrippa  is  consulted  to 
assist  Festus  to  report  on  the  charge;  and  the  hearing  before 
the  king  is  definitely  concerning  the  relation  of  Judaism  and  the 
Way.  Paul  asserts  their  essential  relation.  As  a  Pharisee  he  had 
lived  in  the  hope  of  the  messianic  promise  made  of  God  to  the 
fathers;  as  a  Christian  he  stands  accused  concerning  this  hope 
and  its  fulfilbnent  in  the  Gospel.  While  a  Pharisee  persecuting 
the  Way,  he  had  been  called  to  preach  the  Gospel  by  the  risen 
Jesus;  and  in  this  ministry  he  preaches  nothing  but  what  the 
Jewish  prophets  predicted:  that  the  Christ  should  suffer  and  rise 
to  proclaim  light  both  to  the  people  and  to  the  Gentiles.  To 
Festus  the  Roman  this  exposition  of  the  Way  in  its  relation  to 
Judaism  is  madness,  fxapia,  as  later  to  Pliny  it  is  superstitio  prava 
inomodica.  By  Agrippa  the  attempt  to  develop  the  relation  is 
repelled  with  a  courtly  sneer  of  contempt  for  the  name  of  Christian. 
Yet  both  agree  that  it  is  not  a  crime  calling  for  punishment  by 
the  State;  and  they  remit  the  case  to  Rome  by  reason  of  Paul's 
appeal  from  Festus's  proposal  of  a  Jerusalem  trial. 

Luke's  interest  in  the  narrative  of  these  Roman  hearings  is 
controlled  by  his  general  aim  to  present  historically  in  the  progress 
of  Christianity  even  amid  opposition  and  persecution,  what  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  presents  theologically:  the  Gospel  as  a 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  the  Jew  first  and  also  to  the 
Greek.    There  is  no  indication  of  a  tendency  to  prove  to  unbe- 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    173 

lievers  that  the  harmlessness  of  Christianity  was  recognized  by 
officials  who  avoided  a  decision,  and  yet  kept  the  Apostle  five 
years  in  imprisonment  on  the  charges;  nor  of  personal  favoring 
interest  by  any  of  the  officials.  Felix  left  him  bound  to  gain 
favor  with  the  Jews;  Festus  also  desiring  to  gain  favor  with 
them,  proposed  an  ominous  Jerusalem  trial.  The  evident  stress 
by  Luke  upon  Paul's  convincing  proofs  of  innocence  of  personal 
wrongdoing  and  of  attack  upon  social  order  or  religious  institutions, 
and  upon  his  bold  profession  of  his  Christian  faith,  is  as  before  for 
the  instruction  and  estabUshment  of  his  Christian  readers  in 
similar  situations.  Paul's  conduct  under  attack  had  already  been 
exemplified  and  governed  by  the  principles  Peter  urged  for 
the  establishment  of  his  readers  under  persecution :  let  none  of  you 
suffer  as  a  criminal  '  or  as  an  evildoer  or  as  an  aWoTpLoeirlaKOTros; 
but  if  any  man  suffer  as  a  Christian,  let  him  not  be  ashamed,  but 
let  him  glorify  God  in  this  name,'  I  Pet.  4,  15,  cp.  also  3,  15  f.^^ 
Luke's  aims  are  illustrated  by  Paul's  letters  in  the  Roman  im- 
prisonment succeeding  his  appeal,  in  which  are  interwoven  ex- 
hortations for  establishment  under  attack,  by  his  own  example 
and  conduct.  The  Philippians  are  to  stand  fast,  in  nothing 
affrighted  by  the  adversaries;  having  the  same  conflict  which 
they  saw  in  him  and  now  hear  to  be  in  him,  1,  27  ff.  The  rising 
opposition  and  popular  defamation  is  to  be  met_by  the  strictest 
personal  morality,  Philp.  1,  27;  4,  8;  Ephes.  4,  17  ff.;  Col.  3,  5  ff. 
Especially  against  suspicion  of  unsettling  social  institutions  are 
the  sections  emphasizing  due  subordination  in  the  household,  on 
the  highest  Christian  principles,  Ephes.  5,  22-6,  9;  Col.  3,  18- 
4,  1.^^  The  runaway  slave  Onesimus  is  returned  to  Philemon, 
yet  now  *as  a  brother  beloved.'  In  direct  relations  with  'those 
that  are  without,'  murmurings  and  disputings  are  to  be  avoided, 
Pp.  2,  15;  speech  is  to  be  always  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt, 
that  they  may  know  how  to  answer  each  one.  Col.  4,  6;  and  in 
general  they  are  to  walk  in  wisdom  towards  those  without,  re- 
deeming the  time  because  the  days  are  evil,  cp.  the  parallel, 
Ephes.  5,  15.    No  allusion,  however,  is  made  to  accusations  of 

1^  If  with  several  recent  critics  Acts  was  composed  in  63  a.  d.,  and  if  with 
Chase,  Zahn,  etc.,  I  Peter  early  in  64,  they  would  be  practically  contempo- 
raneous. 

12  Cp.  Ramsay,  The  Church  in  the  Raman  Empire,  236,  246,  348. 


174    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

disloyalty  or  sedition,  against  the  Apostle  or  his  readers.  ^^  But 
as  in  Acts,  along  with  this  emphasis  on  Christian  avoidance  of  all 
occasion  of  complaints  in  the  sphere  of  the  things  of  Caesar,  is  the 
accompanying  emphasis  on  his  readiness,  shared  by  his  readers, 
to  suffer  in  behalf  of  the  Christ,  Php.  1,  29.20. 

The  result  of  the  trial  has  not  been  recorded  by  Luke.  His 
silence  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  historical  connections  in  the 
later  New  Testament  references  to  the  conflict  with  the  State  in 
the  ApostoHc  Age,  has  been  the  inevitable  occasion  of  divided 
views  among  historical  critics  concerning  the  facts,  dates  and  legal 
processes  of  State  persecution,  which  affect  also  the  determination 
of  critical  questions  as  to  the  dates  and  genuineness,  e.  g.,  of  the 
Pastorals  and  I  Peter.  Outside  the  New  Testament,  Nero's  per- 
secution recorded  by  Tacitus  and  Suetonius  is  the  starting  point 
for  the  historical  discussion  of  the  conflict. ^^  As  our  present  in- 
terest is  in  the  establishment  of  believers  under  this  and  later 
attacks  by  the  State  or  populace,  we  shall  consider  it  on  the  theory 
that  Paul  was  released  in  Rome  in  63;  possibly  as  the  outcome 
of  the  failure  of  the  Jerusalem  authorities  to  prosecute  within  a 
biennium.  There  was,  however,  obviously  judicial  examination  of 
the  Procurator's  report  of  the  charges  and  defense  made  at  Caes- 
area.  ThcrApostle's  release  implies  not  only  acknowledgment  of 
his  innocence  of  immorality,  crime  and  interference  with  estab- 
hshed  religion  and  social  order,  but  in  addition  a  recognition  that 
Christianity  was  not  in  itself  a  crime,  and  not  a  seditious  move- 
ment. 

But  parallel  to  this  absence  of  legal  condemnation,  there  are  the 
indications  in  the  New  Testament  of  a  rising  popular  hatred  and 
defamation.  It  is  presupposed  in  the  exhortations  of  Rom.  12, 
17-13,  7,  cp.  8,  35  if.,  which  are  based  on  Paul's  experience  in 
Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  and  are  assumed  to  be  needed  in  Rome 

"  Canfield,  Early  Persecutions  of  Christians,  p.  41:  *  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  Christians  were  formally  accused  of  maiestas  even  as  late  as  the  time  of 
TertuUian.' 

"For  this  discussion  reference  may  be  made  to  Ramsay,  The  Church  in 
the  Roman  Empire,  p.  226  ff.  E.  G.  Hardy,  Christianity  and  the  Roman 
Government,  in  Studies  in  Roman  History.  F.  H.  Chase,  Hastings'  D.  B., 
Ill,  p.  783  f.  L.  H.  Canfield,  Early  Persecutions  of  the  Christians,  with  the 
sources  in  text  and  translation.  H.  B.  Workman,  Persecution  in  the  Early 
Church. 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    175 

in  58  A.  D.  Writing  in  63  a.  d.,  his  picture  of  opposition  in 
Php.  1,  28  f.  and  2,  14  ff.,  is  the  reflection  of  the  situation  of 
Rome  at  the  same  time.  From  Ephesians  and  Colossians  we  have 
inferred  allusions  to  popular  discredit  and  suspicion  in  Asia  Minor 
at  this  period.  Tacitus,  Ann,  XV,  14  is  the  direct  witness  of  this 
widespread  feeling  in  64  a.  d.  against  the  disciples  'who  were 
called  Christians  by  the  mob  and  were  hated  for  their  enormities, 
flagitia.'  He  himself  views  the  new  religion  as  a  'pernicious  su- 
perstition,' and  includes  it  among  the  'atrocia  aut  pudenda.' 
Upon  these  objects  of  popular  malevolence,  Nero  seeks  to  cast 
the  blame  for  the  burning  of  Rome  and  inaugurates  the  first  State 
persecution. 

The  legal  procedure  and  outcome  of  this  Neronian  trial  of  the 
accused  Christians  became  the  precedent  for  the  further  official 
persecutions  in  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament  period,  under  the 
Flavian  emperors.  The  authorities  referred  to  above  present  in 
detail  the  recent  theories  as  to  its  method;  especially  whether 
Christians  were  condemned  as  Callewaert  and  numerous  French 
scholars  hold,  by  a  special  penal  law  formulated  by  Nero;  or  as 
Profumo  argues,  by  a  rule  of  evidence,  institutum  Neronianum, 
according  to  which, '  immorality,  sacrilege  or  atheism,  and  maiestas 
are  so  intimately  associated  that  proof  of  one  of  them  implied 
guilt  of  the  other  two,'  Canfield,  p.  31;  or  by  trial  for  violation 
of  criminal  law;  or  as  is  more  generally  accepted,  following  Momm- 
sen,  by  the  magistrate's  inherent  power  of  immediate  action, 
coerdtio,  in  repressing  any  disorders  affecting  good  order  and  the 
welfare  of  the  State. 

More  important,  however,  than  this  debate  in  regard  to  the 
procedure,  is  the  debate  concerning  the  ground  of  the  charges 
under  Nero.  In  Trajan's  reign  it  is  evident  that  Christians  are 
punished  for  the  Name:  'for  the  profession  of  Christianity  apart 
from  proof  of  definite  crimes.'  Ramsay,  pp.  242,  253,  maintains 
that  'under  Nero  it  was  otherwise.  The  trial  is  held,  and  the 
condemnation  is  pronounced  in  respect  not  of  the  Name,  but  of 
serious  offenses  connected  with  the  Name.'  He  insists  that  the 
development  of  this  policy  into  that  followed  by  Pliny  and  Trajan 
took  place  under  Vespasian;  which  he  grants  involves  the  dating 
of  I  Peter  about  80  a.  d. 

It  seems,  however,  more  probable,  with  Moffatt,  Introd.j  p. 


176    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

324  f.,  that  the  action  which  began  with  the  trial  of  Christians  for 
arson  and  other  crimes,  issued  in  a  '  second  stage  of  imperial  pro- 
cedure against  them  as  hostile  to  the  human  race,  inaugurated 
under  Nero,  (which)  prevailed  during  the  Flavian  dynasty  and 
invested  the  mere  name  of  Christian  with  perilous  and  compro- 
mising associations.'  Hardy,  who  with  Mommsen  and  Sanday 
beUeves  that  persecution  for  the  Name  might  have  happened  at 
any  time  since  64  a.  d.,  points  out,  p.  95  f.,  that  in  the  Neronian 
trials,  '  while  probably  several  specific  charges  came  into  consider- 
ation, the  condenmation  was  not  on  the  ground  of  any  of  them, 
but  of  a  summary  of  them  all  amounting  to  'odium  generis  hu- 
mani':  in  other  words,  the  Christians  were  condemned  for  what 
was  involved  in  the  name  or  profession  of  their  sect.'  'They  were 
punished,'  p.  59,  'not  as  incendiaries  but  as  Christians.'  ^^ 

The  conduct  of  Christians  under  persecutions  which-were  liable 
to  break  out  in  the  provinces  on  occasion  of  popular  antagonism 
and  after  acquaintance  with  the  Neronian  persecution  and  l^al 
precedent,  ^^  is  that  prescribed  by  Christ  and  practiced  by  Paul, 
as  he  claims  in  his  defenses  at  Caesarea.  It  is  urged  upon  the  dis- 
ciples in  the  Epistles  which,  on  the  view  of  their  genuineness, 
were  written  shortly  after  the  attack  at  Rome  in  64  a.  d.:  the 
Pastorals  and  I  Peter.  I  Timothy  and  Titus,  regarded  as  Pauline, 
are  usually  assigned  to  66  a.  d.,  though  Zahn  dates  them  a  year 
earlier.  They  make,  however,  no  reference  to  official  persecution, 
and  as  Ramsay  emphasizes  make  no  reference  to  persecution  for 
the  Name.  This  proves  that  no  general  State  persecution  was 
then  in  progress;  and  is  also  inconsistent  with  the  view  that  under 
Nero  a  specific  law  had  been  enacted  making  Christianity  an 

"  Hardy,  pp.  60,  63,  explains  the  spasmodic  character  of  the  later  proceed- 
ings against  Christians  as  due  to  the  fact  that  'provincial  governors  would  be 
far  more  likely  .  .  .  only  to  take  action  when  popular  feeling  forced  it 
upon  them.'  Since  the  whole  matter  was  one  of  police  administration,  they 
would  take  action  'when  action  seemed  advisable,  but  might  at  any  time 
without  weakening  the  principle  of  such  action,  allow  it  to  rest  either  wholly 
or  in  part  during  long  intervals  of  time.'  This  action  would  be  simply  to 
establish  the  Christianity  of  the  accused,  which  was  itself  criminally  deserving 
execution;  though  'as  long  as  Christianity  was  comparatively  unfamiliar, 
the  special  charges  would  be  to  a  certain  extent  gone  into,  while  later  on  this 
would  be  thought  in  fact  as  it  already  was  in  principle,  unnecessary.' 

"  Cp.  Moflfatt,  Introd.,  p.  327. 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    177 

illegal  society.  Yet  both  from  several  definite  statements  and 
from  general  features  of  their  structure  and  contents,  it  is  evident 
that  the  two  letters  are  written  within  the  shadow  of  a  threatened 
official  persecution,  which  if  it  takes  place  will  be  for  the  Name. 
The  recent  meeting  of  the  Apostle  with  his  fellow-workers  to  whom 
he  now  writes  renders  unnecessary  a  description  of  the  historical 
situation.  Nor  any  need  of  extended  instruction  concerning  per- 
secution for  the  Name.  If  it  arises,  every  Christian  has  already 
been  taught  the  duty  of  unflinching  confession,  and  of  submission 
to  the  resulting  death.  But  as  it  is  stirred  up  by  popular  suspicion 
and  slanders,  there  is  need  to  provide  as  hitherto  for  the  avoidance 
of  occasion  for  this  antagonism.  The  two  Epistles  are  instructions 
in  matters  of  Church  order;  yet  specifically  concerning  the  dis- 
cipline of  Church  life  in  order  to  meet  a  situation  of  threatened 
external  attack  and  also  of  an  internal  danger  of  a  false  teaching 
whose  indifference  to  morality  and  tendencies  towards  emancipa- 
tion from  social  order,  would  furnish  occasion  for  attack  on  all 
professing  the  Name. 

Hence,  we  mark  among  the  principal  topics  in  each,  loyalty 
to  the  Empire  expressed  in  submission  to  its  rulers,  Tit.  3,  1;  in 
prayers  for  kings  and  all  that  are  in  high  place;  and  in  recognition 
of  the  validity  of  laws  against  flagitia,  which  are  contrary  to  the 
Christian  sound  doctrine  and  Gospel,  I  Tim.  2,  2^1,  8  ff.  while 
thus  rendering  to  Caesar  the  things  of  Caesar,  supreme  allegiance 
to  God  is  recalled  in  his  special  titles  in  contrast  to  earthly  sover- 
eigns. As  in  Php.  3,  20  rijiojv  to  xoXlreuina  iv  ovpavoXs  is  followed 
by  the  title  of  Christ  as  l^carrip  and  Kupios,  so  in  these  letters  we 
find  nine  times  forms  of  6  'EosTrip  rincov  deos  or  6  /xe7as  dcds  Kal 
'ScjTrip  rip.S)v  *lrjaovs  xP^<^t<>^'  He  is  jSactXeus  tcov  aiiovoiv)  and  in 
the  context  referring  to  Hhe  good  confession'  of  Timothy  and  of 
Christ  before  Pilate,  6,  12  ff.,  he  is  the  blessed  and  only  AvvaarrjSy 
6  ^a<n\evs  rdv  ^aaiKtvbvTdiv  Kal  Kvpios  tojv  KvpLevovTCJV. 

We  observe  next  the  stress  on  avoidance  of  the  charge  of  dis- 
turbing public  order  and  social  customs.  Christians  are  to  lead  a 
tranquil  and  quiet,  iiavxf'Ov,  Ufe  in  all  godliness  and  gravity, 
I  Tim.  2,  2;  to  ward  off  accusation  of  *  odium  generis  humani,' 
which  in  Tit.  3,  3b,  is  really  a  characteristic  of  their  pre-christian 
state,  by  speaking  evil  of  no  man,  not  being  contentious  but 
gentle,  showing  all  meekness  toward  all  men,  as  followers  of  the 


178    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

kindness  and  (t>LKavdpo)Tla  of  God  our  Saviour,  vss.  2.4.  Es- 
pecially in  the  social  order  of  the  household  to  give  no  occasion 
for  complaint,  which  could  arise  from  the  abuse  of  Christian  free- 
dom by  women,  I  Tim.  2,  9-15;  Titus  2,  3-6;  or  by  slaves,  I  Tim. 
6,  1;  Tit.  2,  9f. 

There  is  further  a  constant  emphasis  throughout  both  letters  on 
personal  morality,  which  is  summed  up  in  the  injunction,  Tit.  3,  8, 
that  those  who  have  believed  in  God  are  to  be  careful  to  maintain 
good  works.     The   relation  of  these  justifications  is  expressed 
in  the  two  dogmatic  passages,  3,  4-7  and  2, 11-14;  they  are  not  its 
ground  but  its  outcome  and  goal,  2,  14.    The  grace  of  God  which 
brings  salvation  instructs  us  to  be  zealous  of  good  works  in  all  the 
possible  relations  of  a  life  of  duty  towards  self,  man  and  God:  to 
live  soberly,  righteously  and  godly  in  this  present  world.    One 
definite  need  of  this  emphasis  is  due  to  the  presence  of  many  un- 
ruly, avvirhTaKTOi,  false  teachers  of  antinomian  license,  who  pro- 
fess to  know  God,  but  by  their  works  deny  him;  being  unto  every 
good  work  reprobate.  Tit.  1,  15  f.    The  seriousness  of  this  influence 
and  its  danger  both  for  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  and  for  the  rela- 
tion of  Christians  to  the  State,  can  be  inferred  from  the  detailed 
descriptions  of  them  and  from  the  definite  charges  for  their  repu- 
diation in  I  Timothy,  Chapters  1,  4  and  6,  and  in  Titus  1,  10  ff.; 
3, 9  ff . ;  and  also  from  probable  counter-acting  teachings  in  the  inter- 
vening sections.    It  is  also  significant  that  in  both  Epistles  the 
directions  concerning  the  ministry  are  given  from  the  view  point 
of  discipline  in  accordance  with  the  above  instructions.    Titus  him- 
self, 2,  7,  is  to  be  a  type  of  good  works,  uncorrupt  teaching,  sound 
speech  that  cannot  be  condemned;  and  this,  definitely  'that  he 
that  is  of  the  contrary  part  may  be  ashamed,  having  no  evil  thing 
to  say  of  us.'   The  qualifications  of  presbyters,  1,  6,  are  that  they 
shall  be  above  the  possibility  of  general  reproach;  then  as  bishops 
and  stewards  of  God  above  the  reproach  of  characteristics  unfitted 
for  rule  and  discipline,  and  known  to  be  zealous  of  good  works;  and 
also  able  to  exhort  in  the  sound  doctrine  and  to  confute  the  false 
teachers.    Similar  qualifications  are  demanded  in  I  Tim.  3,  with 
distinct  emphasis  on  their  capacity  to  rule,  as  shown  by  their  rule 
of  their  own  homes;  and  on  their  '  good  testimony  from  them  that 
are  without,'  vs.  7.     By  their  discipline,  sound  teaching  and  refu- 
tation of  the  immoral  doctrines  of  the  intruding   errorists,   the 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    179 

popular  charges  against  Christians  may  be  dispelled  by  their 
marked  loyalty,  by  avoidance  of  attack  on  the  social  order  and  by 
their  type  of  highest  morality.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  such  refu- 
tation of  specific  charges,  persecution  for  the  Name  of  Christian  is 
now  at  any  time  a  possibility.  Should  it  arise,  the  one  duty  as 
enjoined  throughout  the  New  Testament,  is  unwavering  con- 
fession of  the  Name,  'rejoicing  that  as  ye  are  partakers  of  Christ's 
sufferings,  at  the  revelation  of  his  glory  also,  ye  may  rejoice  with 
exceeding  joy,'  I  Pet.  4,  13. 

This  passage  from  I  Peter  refers  distinctly  to  reviling  for  the 
Name.  The  Epistle,  which  is  here  regarded  as  written  from  Rome 
shortly  after  I  Tim.  and  Titus,  ^^  is  addressed  to  Pauline  Christians 
in  Asia  who  are  already  suffering  persecution  on  account  of  the 
popular  clamor,  and  are  also  in  imminent  peril  of  persecution 
and  death  for  their  profession  of  Christianity.  The  conduct  to 
which  Peter  exhorts  in  his  situation  is  closely  parallel  to  that  which 
we  have  observed  in  the  two  Pauline  Pastorals.  He,  too,  counsels 
loyal  submission  to  the  Emperor  and  Governors,  2,  13;  though  first 
recalling  the  disciples'  heavenly  citizenship,  and  addressing  them 
therefore  as  'sojourners  and  pilgrims,'  2,  9.  11.  He  warns  them 
likewise  against  interference  with  the  established  social  order:  let 
none  of  you  suffer  as  dXXorptoeTrlo-KOTros  ,^*  4,  15;  and  as  in  the 
Pastorals  sends  a  special  message  both  to  the  Christian  slaves, 
2,  18  ff.,  urging  submission  and  acceptance  of  suffering,  after  the 
example  of  Christ;  and  also  to  wives,  3,  Iff.,  bidding  them  submit 
to  unbelieving  husbands  in  '  a  chaste  behavior  coupled  with  fear' 
and  with  the  adorning  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit. 

There  is  again  in  this  Epistle  the  same  constant  stress  on  moral 
conduct  'as  children  of  obedience,  they  are  to  be  holy  in  all  be- 
havior, 1,  14;  to  have  their  behavior  seemly,  KoXij  among  the  Gen- 
tiles, who  speak  against  them  as  evil  doers,'  2,  12,  cp.  3,  16.    The 

"  Moflfatt,  Introd.,  p.  323.  'The  internal  evidence  does  not  appear  to  carry 
us  beyond  the  seventh  decade  of  the  first  century,  as  reflected,  e.  g.,  in  a  con- 
temporary passage  like  Mk.  13,  9-11.' 

"Ramsay,  Church  in  Raman  Empire,  293:  "It  refers  to  the  charge  of 
tampering  with  family  relationships,  causing  disunion  and  discord,  rousing 
discontent  and  disobedience  among  slaves,  and  so  on."  And  on  p.  348  n. 
"The  Latin  term  alienum  speculari  and  the  noun  alieni  speculator  suggested 
the  extraordinary  Greek  rendering  ...  as  a  rough  attempt  to  translate  a 
foreign  term  that  had  no  recognized  equivalent  in  Greek." 


180    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

immoral  influence  of  the  errorists  of  the  Pastorals  in  spreading  a 
false  spirit  of  emancipation  from  external  authority  and  law  is  here 
guarded  against  in  the  summary:  ^as  free,  and  not  having  your 
freedom  for  a  cloak  of  wickedness,  but  as  bondservants  of  God,'  2, 
16.  In  contrast  to  the  Pastorals  there  is  naturally  only  the  most 
general  reference  to  the  duties  of  the  clergy  in  this  pastoral 
addressed  directly  to  the  Christian  disciples. 

But  in  addition  to  avoiding  the  specific  popular  charges,  and  to 
acceptance  of  suffering  on  account  of  righteousness,  2,  12;  3,  14  f.; 
4, 15,  the  disciples  must  now  face  a  situation  in  which  the  Christian 
brotherhood  anywhere  is  exposed  to  suffering  for  the  Name. 
Again,  the  only  duty  is  confession  of  the  faith:  be  not  ashamed; 
glorify  God  in  this  Name,  4, 16;  and  humble  submission  to  suffering 
according  to  the  will  of  God,  4,  13.19;  5,  6,  revealed  in  Christ's 
benediction  on  the  persecuted,  4,  14,  cp.  Mtw.  5,  11.12,  and  in  his 
own  glorification  through  suffering. 

The  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy  points  to  Paul's  arrest  in  spite  of 
the  avoidance  of  the  popular  charges;  and  presumably  as  a  leader 
of  the  condemned  Christian  movement,  under  the  precedent  of  64 
A.  D,  which  we  learn  from  I  Peter  4, 12-19  was  being  acted  upon  in 
this  period.  The  circumstances  of  his  arrest  are  unknown.  If, 
however,  he  was  in  Greece  in  66  a.  d,  I  Tim  1,  3;  Tit.  3,  12,  it  may 
be  related  to  Nero's  presence  there  from  auturrm  of  66  to  spring  of 
68.  His  tours  there  *  caused  no  interruption  in  the  course  ofjim- 
perial  bloodshed.  Rich  victims  were  to  be  found  in  Achaia,  as  in 
Italy,'  H,  D.  B.  Ill  517.  It  was  there  too  that  Nero  received 
the  announcement  of  the  Jewish  rebellion  and  of  the  terrific  defeat 
by  the  Jews  of  the  Roman  forces  under  the  legate  Cestius  in  Octo- 
ber, 66.  While  such  a  situation  could  account  for  Nero's  arrest  of 
the  Jewish  leader  of  the  Christians,  it  still  leaves  undetermined  the 
charge  upon  which  he  was  remanded  to  Rome.  But  Paul's  state- 
ments in  II  Timothy  point  strongly  to  prosecution  for  the  Name. 
The  basis  of  this  charge  is  the  earlier  decision  that  profession  of  the 
Name  involves  'hatred  of  the  human  race,'  which  is  a  summary  of 
all  special  charges.  Hence  the  Apostle's  statement,  2,  9,  that  he  is 
suffering  as  an  evildoer,  KaKovpyos,  could  in  itself  express  the  essen- 
tial content  of  the  charge  of  being  a  Christian.  Ramsay  on  the 
contrary  insists,  p.  249,  that  'KaKovpyos  refers  expressly  to  the 
flagitia,  for  which  the  Christians  were  condemned  under  Nero, 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    181 

and  for  which  they  were  no  longer  condemned  in  a.  d.  112  ';  though 
he  adds,  'the  flagitia  were  a  standing  reproach  in  all  periods.' 

But  KaKovpyos  does  not  stand  alone.  He  is  thus  suffering  as  an 
evildoer  not  in  view  of  specific  personal  immoralities  or  political 
crimes,  but '  suffering  in  my  gospel  that  Jesus  of  the  seed  of  David 
is  risen  from  the  dead.^^  In  a  close  parallel  the  gospel  summarized 
in  1,  9.10,  of  which  he  is  preacher  and  apostle  and  teacher,  vs.  11, 
is  the  cause  of  his  suffering.  In  vs.  12  follows  his  unwavering  con- 
fession of  it,  and  his  commendation  of  his  soul,  TrapadTjKrjv  noVy 
to  God,  as  in  I  Pet.  4, 19,  those  suffering  according  to  the  will  of 
God  as  Christians  are  not  to  be  ashamed,  but  are  to  commend  their 
souls,  irapaTLdeo'dcaa'aVf  in  well  doing  unto  a  faithful  Creator. 
Timothy  likewise  is  now  no  longer  exhorted  concerning  avoidance 
of  popular  calumny  of  crimes  of  Christians,  but  in  1,  8,  is  not  to  be 
ashamed  of  Hhe  witness  of  our  Lord  nor  of  me  his  prisoner;  but  to 
suffer  hardship  with  the  Gospel' ;  and  2,  3,  with  me  as  a  good  soldier 
of  Christ  Jesus.  In  2,  11  ff.,  the  alternative  to  enduring  is  Ho 
deny  Christ  and  to  cease  to  be  loyal  to  him,'  Holtzmann  and  B. 
Weiss;  ^  the  passage  being  based  on  the  saying  Mtw.,  10  32  f. 
We  may  therefore  conclude  that  Paul  is  about  to  suffer  for  the 
Name,  for  his  confession  that  he  is  a  Christian.  Such  a  charge 
which  would  affect  the  disciples  in  general  could  account  for 
the  desertions  in  1,  15,  when  '  all  that  are  in  Asia  turned  away  from 
him';  and  in  4,  16,  when  at  his  first  defense  all  forsook  him.  In  vs. 
17  the  aim  of  that  defense  is  not  to  clear  himself  of  charges  of  per- 
sonal crimes,  but  'that  the  message  might  be  fully  proclaimed.' 
And  in  4,  7  ff.  the  righteous  Judge  is  to  crown  him  upon  his  im- 
pending death,  which  is  viewed  in  no  relation  to  false  accusation  of 
crimes,  but  as  the  result  of  his  ministry  in  the  gospel  and  of  having 
kept  the  faith.  That  the  statement  ttiv  tt'kttiv  TerriprjKa  includes 
his  final  confession  of  it  at  Rome,  as  already  at  Caesarea,  Acts  24, 
14-16;  26,  19-23,  is  supported  by  the  similar  statement.  Rev.  3,  8: 
errjprjaas  fiov  rbv  \6yov  Kal  ovk  ripvrjaoo  to  6voiJLa  fiov, 

I'll.  Tim  2,  8.9.  Kara  t6  evayyi\ibv  nov,  kv  cp  KaKOirado)  fi^xpi' 
deaixojv  cbs  KaKOvpyos. 

20  In  2,  13,  aTL(TTev(jj  is  in  contrast  to  tl<tt6s  fiivef,;  in  I  Tim.  5,  8,  we 
have  the  combination  airLCTTOS  and  apvei(TBai  rrfv  ttIcttlp;  and  in  Tit. 
1,  16,  the  contrast,  apveojiaL  and  OjUoXoyea). 


182    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

We  may  briefly  notice  the  references  to  this  conflict  and  to 
Christian  conduct  in  relation  to  it  in  New  Testament  books  written 
either  in  this  decade  or  later.  In  Hebrews,  whether  assigned  to 
the  closing  years  of  Nero  or  to  the  period  80-96  a.  d.,  the  perse- 
cutions alluded  to  could  be  both  for  alleged  crimes  and  for  pro- 
fession of  the  faith.  Formerly,  10,  32,  in  some  undefined  locality 
and  period,  the  new  converts  had  endured  exposure  to  popular 
revilings  and  afliictions  or  had  avowed  their  fellowship  with  such 
sufferers  and  prisoners;  and  had  accepted  the  spoiling  of  their 
possessions,  as  'the  results  of  mob-rioting.'  But  now  the  writer 
prepares  them  'for  bearing  the  brunt  of  some  imminent  danger, 
which  hitherto  (12,  4,  not  yet  unto  blood),  they  have  been  spared,' 
Moffatt,  Introd.,  454.  That  this  is  persecution  for  their  profession 
of  Christ  is  indicated  in  repeated  allusions  to  the  temptation  and 
sin  of  not  maintaining  this  profession;  in  calls  to  hold  fast  the 
confession  of  our  hope  without  wavering,  10,  23,  cp.  6,  12,  and 
to  joyful  confession  of  his  name,  13,  15,  bearing  the  reproach  of 
Christ,  vs.  13.  To  bear  this  reproach  demands,  vs.  14,  their  first 
and  supreme  allegiance  to  the  abiding  heavenly  city  and  Patria, 
11,  14  f.  It  was  the  reproach  of  the  Christ  which  Moses  deemed 
greater  riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt,  when  he  forsook  that 
kingdom  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God.  As  in  I  Pet.  4, 
12-19,  among  the  motives  for  endurance  'if  they  are  reproached 
in  the  name  of  Christ,'  Heb.  12,  1-11,  likewise  points  to  fellow- 
ship thereby  with  Christ's  suffering  and  glory,  and  humble  sub- 
mission to  the  chastening  and  exalting  hand  of  the  Father  of 
Spirits. 

All  the  New  Testament  instructions  for  conduct  under  persecu- 
tion and  especially  for  confession  of  the  faith  at  any  cost,  are  based 
upon  the  warnings,  commands  and  promises  of  Christ.  The  dis- 
ciples were  familiar  with  these  in  the  Oral  Gospel,  in  the  instruc- 
tion preparatory  to  baptism  and  in  the  use  of  them  in  the  Church 
services.  As  according  to  recent  datings  the  Synoptic  Gospels 
were  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  period  of  increpsing  popular 
and  official  persecutions  from  about  65  a.  d.  onwards,  they  served 
among  other  needs,  that  of  establishing  believers  by  their  record 
of  Christ's  teachings  relative  to  this  conflict.  Even  on  theories  of 
their  later  date,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  all  the  Gospel  passages 
relating  to  the  coming  persecutions  are  taken  from  the  earliest 


ESTABLISHMENT  AGAINST  EXTERNAL  OPPOSITIONS    183 

sources,  especially  from  Q,^^  and  thus  attest  the  instruction  of 
converts  in  the  earliest  period  concerning  attacks  from  Jewish  and 
local  heathen  authorities  or  from  popular  antagonism.  They  ap- 
pear in  four  out  of  the  five  great  Discourses  in  Matthew  which 
are  ended  with  the  well-known  formula  and  in  their  parallels. 
The  first,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  Mtw.  5,  10-12,  con- 
tains the  blessings  on  those  persecuted  for  righteousness^  sake 
and  on  those  reproached,  persecuted  and  slandered  for  Christ's 
sake.  Next  and  most  fully  in  the  Discourse  at  the  Mission 
of  the  Twelve,  10,  16-39,  i.  e.,  24  out  of  38  verses.  In  the  Parable 
Discourse,  the  reference  to  'Tribulation  or  persecution  because 
of  the  word,'  13,  21,  is  usually  viewed  as  taken  from  Mark,  the 
earliest  of  the  Synoptics.  The  remaining  passage,  24,  9,  is  in  the 
Discourse  on  the  Last  Things,  in  which  Mk.  13,  9-13,  parallels 
Mtw.  10,  17-22.  According  to  B.  Weiss  this  Mtw.-Mk.  parallel, 
while  not  originally  in  either  the  charge  to  the  Apostles,  Mtw.  10, 
5  ff.  or  in  the  Parousia  Discourse,  was  yet  taken  from  teaching 
belonging  to  the  close  of  the  ministry.^^  In  John  also,  warnings 
of  persecutions  are  given  at  the  close  of  the  ministry  in  the  dis- 
courses at  the  Last  Supper,  John  15,  18  ff . ;  16,  1  ff . 

The  Christian  readers  of  the  Gospels  were  prepared  for  perse- 
cution by  these  warnings  of  Christ  and  by  his  call  for  unwavering 
confession  of  faith  in  him.  On  the  last  day  of  pubUc  ministry,  his 
command  to  pay  tribute  to  Caesar  as  expressed  in  the  general 
principle  of  rendering  unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar's, 
embraced  the  duty  of  obedience  to  all  law  against  crime  and  of 
loyal  submission,  whereby  occasions  of  persecutions  would  be 
guarded  against.  Yet  should  the  things  of  Caesar  involve  conflict 
with  the  supreme  duty  of  a  divine  allegiance,  the  principle  of 
profession  of  the  faith  at  any  cost  of  sacrifice  was  fixed  at  the 

21  This  is  dated  by  Moffatt,  Introd.,  203  as  not  later  than  70;  "so  far  as  the 
internal  evidence  goes,  it  may  even  fall  within  the  sixth"  decade  of  the  first 
century. 

22  B.  Weiss,  Marcusevangem,  p.  416  n.:  '  Matthew  has  inserted  this  series  of 
Sayings  in  the  Discourse  of  Instruction,  10,  17-22.  But  it  belongs  neither 
to  this  Discourse  nor  to  that  on  the  Parousia;  but  formed  in  the  Apostolic 
source  an  independent  prediction  of  the  fate  of  the  disciples,  which  Mark 
considers  and  certainly  rightly  as  appertaining  to  the  last  disclosures  to  the . 
disciples.'  This  view  is  presented  with  additional  details  in  his  MaMhduse' 
vangem,  p.  273. 


184    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

same  time  in  the  command,  render  unto  God  the  things  that  are 
God's.  For  support  in  submitting  to  any  resulting  suffering  ac- 
cording to  the  will  of  God,  the  later  Epistles  point  to  the  example 
of  the  suffering  of  Christ  and  to  his  resulting  glorification  as  re- 
corded in  the  Gospel  witness  of  his  passion  and  resurrection. 

In  the  Revelation  we  find  the  Christians  confronted  with  the 
distinct  issue  of  the  conflict  between  the  things  of  Caesar  and  of 
God.  There  is  very  general  agreement  as  to  the  historic  occasion 
of  the  conflict  and  as  to  the  primary  aim  of  the  book  to  instruct 
and  establish  Christians  under  the  trials  of  an  outbreak  of  per- 
secution in  Asia  in  the  later  years  of  Domitian's  reign.  That  it 
was  persecution  for  the  Name,  appears  from  the  recurring  refer- 
ences to  Christians  as  having  borne,  holding  and  not  denying  my 
Name;  as  keeping  the  word  and  commandments  of  God  and  the 
testimony,  naprvpia,  of  Jesus.  The  demand  for  Caesar-worship, 
chap.  13,  which  evoked  this  'word  of  their  testimony'  from  those 
'who  loved  not  their  life  even  unto  death,'  12,  11,  was  not  pressed 
upon  Christians  until  the  close  of  the  Apostolic  age.  While 
Augustus  had  instituted  the  cult  of  Rome  and  Augustus  in  the 
provinces,  the  original  temple  in  Asia  being  at  Pergamus,  '  no  wor- 
ship of  the  emperor,  which  is  adequate  to  the  data  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, was  enforced  until  Domitian's  reign, '  Moffatt,  Introd.,  p.  503. 
Like  Caligula  he  insisted  on  being  entitled  'Dominus  et  Deus' 
and  'looked  upon  the  Imperial  cultus  as  part  of  the  national 
religion;  and  in  this  point  of  view,  refusal  to  comply  with  the 
prescribed  forms  of  respect  to  the  Emperor  constituted  disloyalty 
and  treason,'  Ramsay,  p.  275;  similarly  Moffatt,  p.  504;  cp. 
Hardy,  p.  71  ff. 

Such  a  demand  admitted  of  no  compromise.  It  made  nec- 
essary the  Christians'  profession  of  supreme  allegiance  to  their 
heavenly  citizenship  under  the  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords, 
and  their  renunciation  of  blasphemous  worship  of  the  world 
kingdom  and  its  Imperial  head,  chaps.  12-14.  And  they  were 
fortified  for  the  tribulations  incurred  by  their  loyal  profession 
and  witness  by  the  example  of  Christ's  victory  and  lordship  through 
sufferings,  chaps.  1-3;  by  God's  control  of  the  world  destinies  and 
his  final  destruction  of  the  visible  and  invisible  forces  of  evil ;  and 
by  the  divine  assurances  in  prophecy  and  vision,  of  the  hope  of 
glory  for  those  who  overcome. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY 

The  controversial  element  in  the  New  Testament  is  concerned 
not  alone  with  external  attacks  upon  Christianity.  Two  internal 
controversies  called  for  special  establishment  of  faith  in  the 
ApostoUc  Age:  one  the  attempted  perversion  of  the  Gospel  by 
Judaizers;  and  at  the  other  extreme,  an  insidious  gnostic  intrusion. 

The  Judaistic  controversy  was  unquestionably  the  most  critical 
in  the  New  Testament  Age,  and  the  most  vital  for  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel.  Its  emergence  was  foreshadowed  in  the  Jewish  attack 
upon  Stephen.  The  resulting  persecution  led  to  the  spread  of 
Christianity  beyond  Palestine,  and  eventually  among  the  Gentiles. 
That  Gentile  mission  definitely  raised  the  questions  at  issue  be- 
tween the  Judaizers  and  Paul;  and  it  continued  to  be  the  occa- 
sion of  their  relentless  attack  upon  himself,  his  Gospel  and  his 
work.  Their  contention  that  salvation  by  faith  in  Jesus  as  the 
Christ  was  only  possible  in  connection  with  membership  in  the 
elect  nation  of  Israel  by  means  of  circumcision  and  observance 
of  the  Mosaic  law,  would  obviously  have  reduced  Christianity 
from  a  religion  of  universal  redemption  to  a  Judaic  sect.  Instead 
of  ever-advancing  world  conquest,  the  new  faith  might  then  have 
disappeared  with  the  national  ruin  of  Judaism,  as  was  the  fate  of 
the  Judaistic  Christians  in  the  earhest  centuries.^ 

This  controversy,  however,  was,  as  Hort  has  stated,  Judaistic 
Christianity,  p.  6,  'a  natural  product  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
ApostoUc  Age.  It  was  involved  in  the  Jewish  opposition  to 
Christ's  own  ministry.  It  rested  on  a  failure  to  reaUze  the  neces- 
sary method  for  accompUshing  his  world  redeeming  mission. 
He  came  both  as  'minister  of  the  circumcision  for  the  truth  of 
God,  that  he  might  confirm  the  promises  given  unto  the  fathers' 
and  also  'that  the  Gentiles  might  glorify  God  for  his  mercy,' 

^  Cp.  Hoennicke,  Das  Jitdenchristenthum  im  1.  und  2.  Jahrhundert,  p.  375  fif. 
McGiffert,  Apostolic  Age,  p.  442. 


186    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Rom.  15,  8  f.  His  universal  mission  was  to  be  begun  and  de- 
veloped in  relation  with  the  Ufe,  the  religious  faith,  institutions 
and  hope  of  elect  Israel;  and  this  was  only  conceivable  by  means 
of  a  creative  transformation  of  Judaism.  The  necessary  trans- 
formation presents  the  whole  problem  of  the  relation  of  the  Old 
and  New  dispensations;  of  promise  and  fulfillment;  election  and 
universaUsm;  grace  and  legaUsm.  In  the  beginnings  of  the  Gospel, 
Jewish  misconception  of  these  relations  as  Christ  unfolded  them, 
is  the  primary  occasion  of  the  opposition  which  he  experienced  and 
sought  to  remove  by  his  twofold  disclaimer  and  affirmation : '  Think 
not  that  I  came  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets;  I  came  not  to 
destroy  but  to  fulfill,'  Mtw.  5,  17.  Yet  after  two  decades  of 
Apostohc  ministry,  Jewish  Christians  still  assert,  in  spite  of 
Christ's  revelation  of  his  twofold  relation  to  the  law  and  its  in- 
stitutions, 'except  ye  be  circumcised  after  the  custom* of  Moses, 
ye  cannot  be  saved,'  Acts  15,  1. 

Hort  in  his  summary  of  the  Gospel  teachings  concerning  Christ 
and  the  law,  op.  dt.,  p.  36  ff.,  indicates  as  the  fundam^ital  source 
of  this  Judaizing  misconception,  their  inabiUty  to  grasp  the  two 
sides  of  his  teaching  and  action  with  respect  of  the  law.  *'Our 
Lord  declared  himself  not  the  destroyer  of  the  law  and  the  prophets 
but  their  fulfiller,  in  that  he  sought  to  give  effect  to  their  true 
purpose  and  inner  meaning.  He  indicated  that  for  himself  and  his 
true  disciples  the  old  form  of  the  law  had  ceased  to  be  binding; 
but  he  did  not  disobey  its  precepts,  or  even  the  precepts  of  tradi- 
tion. ...  He  did  homage  to  that  (for  its  time)  right  service  of 
the  old  order  which  was  represented  by  John  the  Baptist,  though 
he  at  the  same  time  proclaimed  its  entirely  lower  and  transitory 
character.  He  deUberately  confined  his  own  ministry  and  that 
of  his  Apostles  within  Jewish  limits  .  .  .,  while  he  clearly  made 
known  that  the  privileges  of  the  people  of  God  were  to  be  extended 
to  mankind.  This  twofold  character  of  our  Lord's  action  and 
teaching,  recurring  under  different  forms,  specially  attested  in 
Matthew,  the  most  Judaic  of  all  the  Gospels,  foreshadows  the 
only  way  in  which  the  divine  purpose,  humanly  speaking,  could 
be  accompUshed ;  while  it  was  inevitably  open  to  much  misunder- 
standing on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  The  fundamental  point,  a 
fulfillment  of  the  law  which  was  not  a  Uberal  retention  of  it  as  a 
code  of  commandments  was,  as  it  is  still,  a  conception  hard  to 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  187 

grasp :  it  was  easier  either  to  perpetuate  the  conditions  of  the  old 
covenant  or  else  to  blaspheme  them." 

This  vital  and  naturally  inevitable  Judaistic  controversy  has 
received  exceptionally  full  investigation  as  the  outcome  of  the 
work  of  the  Tubingen  School  and  its  successors  in  emphasizing 
its  significance  both  for  the  understanding  of  the  New  Testament 
Age  and  for  the  criticism  of  New  Testament  literature.  The 
results  are  accessible  in  the  works  on  the  Apostolic  Age  and  New 
Testament  Theology;  the  special  works  on  Paul  and  Paulinism; 
and  in  the  exegetical  discussion  of  the  related  New  Testament 
literature.  It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  refer  to  the  controversy 
in  its  theological  aspects  further  than  in  their  connection  with 
the  historic  progress  of  the  conflict  and  with  the  establishment  of 
faith  under  it. 

While  the  actual  agitation  arose  historically  with  the  extension 
of  the  Gospel  to  those  outside  the  Jewish  nation,  the  principles 
involved  came  up  for  discussion  in  the  disputes  of  Stephen  in  the 
Hellenistic   synagogues   of   Jerusalem.     Through   the   distorted 
charges  against  him  and  from  his  own  defense,  it  is  evident  that 
Christian  Jews  apart  as  yet  from  any  problems  of  heathen  evangel- 
ization, were  raising  questions  concerning  the  continued  obliga- 
tion of  Jewish  Christian  observance  of  Mosaic  law,  customs  and 
worship;  and  further  that  these  questions  sprang  ultimately  from 
the  conviction,  which  was  based  on  Christ's  teaching  and  final 
commission,  of  the  universal  mission  of  the  Gospel.    As  we  saw 
earlier,  it  was  with  the  element  of  universalism  in  Israel's  religion, 
that  a  leading  portion  of  Stephen's  defense  was  concerned.     In 
principle  there  was  among  all  Jewish  Christians  no  question  as  to 
the  universal  range  of  messianic  salvation.     Bertholet  ^  in  his 
study  of  the  attitude  of  Israel  to  the  alien  nations  has  presented 
this  universalism  of  salvation  in  the  Old  Testament  teachings,  and 
has  shown  that  varying  historic  conditions  led  in  different  periods 
to  varying  degrees  of  recognition  of  it.    But  at  all  periods  there 
would  be  uncertainty  as  to  the  methods  and  conditions  of  its 
appropriation,  along  with  a  general  presumption  that  the  nations 
would  identify  themselves  with  Israel  to  share  its  glory,  rather 
than  that  Israel  should  be  a  steward,  an  elect  servant  to  dispense 
to  the  world  the  divine  blessings. 

2  Bertholet,  A.,  op.  cU.,  §  3  and  §  8;  and  pp.  393  and  399. 


188    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

To  its  conviction  of  the  universalism  of  the  Grospel,  the  primitive 
Church  had  to  unite  its  conviction  that  the  Church  was  in  es- 
sential relation  to  the  religion  of  Israel,  and  was  the  heir  of  its 
promises  and  of  its  election.  Wherever,  therefore.  Gentiles  should 
be  admitted  to  the  Christian  Church,  it  would  be  to  a  Church  in 
close  relations  with  Israel.  And  the  problem  would  arise  whether 
they  must  not  accept  the  same  conditions  as  Jewish  Christians  for 
admission  and  fellowship  in  the  Elect  body.  In  other  words,  the 
universalism  of  the  Gospel,  so  soon  as  it  entered  on  its  initial 
stages  of  realization,  presented  to  the  Church  the  questions  both 
of  the  divine  privilege  of  Israel's  election  and  of  the  necessity  of 
legal  observance  for  salvation.  In  Luke's  record  we  observe  that 
the  questions  arose  in  this  historical  order.  PhiUp  in  evident  sjnm- 
pathy  with  the  universaUsm  as  preached  by  his  associate  Stephen, 
evangelized  Samaria.  Their  admission  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
Church  of  Jerusalem  presented  no  doctrinal  problem.  They 
already  accepted  circumcision  and  Mosaism ;  by  their  baptism  they 
had  accepted  the  messianism  of  Israel's  prophets;  and  their 
reception  of  the  Spirit  testified  to  the  divine  approval  of  the  work 
of  Philip  and  the  Apostles.  The  definite  stage  of  the  universal 
extension  of  the  Gospel  begins  with  the  conversion  of  Paul,  whose 
commission  to  the  Gentiles  is  in  order  that  they  may  receive  for- 
giveness and  'inheritance  among  them  that  are  consecrated  by 
faith  in  me,'  Acts  26,  18.  His  own  interpretation  of  these  promises 
of  justification  and  of  fellowship  in  the  inheritance  as  apart  from 
the  conditions  of  legalism  and  circumcision,  will  best  account 
for  his  persecution  at  Damascus,  the  attack  by  Hellenists  at 
Jerusalem,  and  for  his  departure  thence  upon  the  warning  of  the 
Temple  vision  and  the  Church's  action  in  sending  him  forth  to 
Tarsus. 

Peter's  baptism  of  Cornelius,  as  justified  by  divine  direction 
for  the  delivery  of  the  Gospel  to  him  and  by  his  reception  of  the 
Spirit  even  prior  to  the  rite,  is  the  first  recognition  of  the  right 
of  a  Gentile  to  membership  in  the  Church,  without  circumcision. 
'They  of  the  circumcision'  in  Jerusalem  promptly  raise  the  general 
question  concerning  such  membership  in  their  complaint,  Hhou 
wentest  in  to  men  uncircumcised  and  didst  eat  with  them.'  The 
Apostle's^defense  is  the  definite  direction  of  the  Spirit  for  this 
visit,  Acts  11,  12;  cp.  10,  20.22.28;  and  more  especially  the  clear 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  189 

divine  warrant  for  the  evangelization  and  baptism  of  these  Gen- 
tile believers.  Their  right  of  admission  without  circumcision  was 
thus  settled  in  principle  for  Peter,  15,  7  ff.;  and  for  Luke,  in  view 
of  his  exceptionally  detailed  reports,  cp.  also  11,  18.  Those  who 
later  are  Judaizers  seemed  included  in  its  general  recognition  at 
this  stage,  vs.  18.  They  could  in  any  case  acquiesce  in  this  in- 
stance of  its  application  as  being  under  special  divine  direction. 
It  was  besides  the  baptism  of  a  devout  Gentile  in  particularly 
close  sympathy  with  the  Jewish  nation  and  reUgion,  10,  2.22; 
and  his  admission  would  not  be  Ukely  to  involve  further  problems 
of  fellowship  with  Church  life  in  Jerusalem. 

The  occasion  of  their  antagonism  could  be  the  new  stage  of 
evangelization  at  Antioch  to  Greeks,  reading  "EWrjvas  with 
Tischf.,  Weiss,  Blass,  etc.^  Their  open  opposition  and  attack  is 
made  at  Antioch  upon  the  conclusion  of  Paul's  first  missionary 
journey,  in  which  he  had  turned  to  the  Gentiles  and  has  organized 
churches  among  them.  The  claim  of  the  Pharisaic  Judaizers  is 
that  in  order  to  the  salvation  of  the  Gentile  believers,  their  bap- 
tism must  be  supplemented  by  circumcision  which  will  admit 
them  to  the  election  of  Israel,  and  by  observance  of  Mosaic  legal- 
ism, whereby  their  fellowship  with  Jewish  Christian  believers,  the 
inheritors  of  the  promises,  will  be  maintained.  Acts  15,  1.5. 
The  issue  thus  raised  was  vital  for  the  religic«i  of  the  Gospel. 
**It  was  the  one  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  on  the 
issue  of  which  was  staked  her  future  progress  and  triumph," 
Lightfoot,  Galatians,  283.  It  had  therefore  to  be  settled  by  the 
action  of  the  Church  as  a  whole;  and  further  had  to  be  met  and 
decided  so  soon  as  it  was  raised.  The  Judaizers  claimed  to  repre- 
sent the  Church  of  Jerusalem;  the  Church  of  Antioch  decided  to 
send  Paul  and  Barnabas  and  certain  others  to  the  Jerusalem 
Apostles  and  elders;  and  Paul  goes  up  by  revelation,  taking  with 

'  If  on  judgment  of  the  Mss.  evidence,  'EXXr/J'tO'Tds  is  read  with  Westcott 
and  Hort,  A^.  T.,  II,  Appndx.  93  f.,  Von  Soden,  etc.,  yet  it  is  generally  agreed 
that  the  context  demands  'Hellenes';  whether  the  change  has  been  due  to 
copyists  of  Acts,  or  as  Bacon  holds,  Story  of  St.  Paul,  p.  85,  to  the  author 
of  Acts  in  editing  his  source.  Hort,  Jud.  Christianity,  60,  understands  a  special 
mission  to  Hellenists,  perhaps  including  godfearers;  Knowling  seems  to  limit 
the  reference  to  godfearers.  Wendt  on  the  contrary  recognizing  that  these 
views  are  untenable,  holds  that  'Hellenists'  in  this  passage  is  used  in  a  sense 
distinct  from  that  in  6,  1;  9,  29,  and  that  it  is  here  equivalent  to  'Greeks.' 


190    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

him  the  Gentile  Titus.  We  have  two  reports  of  the  Conference: 
in  GaL  2,  1  ff.  and  in  Acts  15,  6  ff.  "In  the  former  Paul  is  cer- 
tainly giving  his  own  version  of  what  Luke  subsequently  described 
from  a  later  and  a  different  standpoint;  there  is  nothing  incon- 
sistent in  Paul  emphasizing  the  inward  impulse,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  Luke  recalling  the  joint-action  of  the  Church," 
Moflfatt,  Introd.,  p.  100. 

The  argument  of  the  Judaizers  would  naturally  be  based  on 
their  interpretation  of  the  perpetuity  of  the  law  and  on  circum- 
cision as  the  seal  of  inheritance  of  the  covenant  promise  to  Abraham. 
As  they,  however,  had  supplemented  this  by  baptism  in  profession 
of  faith  in  Christ,  they  may  possibly  have  demanded  on  this 
ground  that  the  Gentiles  should  supplement  their  baptism  by 
circumcision  and  legal  observance.  From  Galatians  and  Acts 
we  can  recognize  that  the  defense  of  Gentile  freedom  was  based 
on  the  divine  commission  and  definite  direction  for  their  evangeli- 
zation, with  no  reference  to  other  conditions  than  repentance  and 
faith;  on  God^s  gift  to  them  of  repentance  unto  life.  Acts  11, 18,  and 
on  his  opening  unto  them  of  a  door  of  faith,  14,  27 ;  on  his  approval 
of  the  ministry  of  the  missionaries,  as  witnessed  in  the  miracles 
he  granted  to  be  performed  in  the  mission,  14,  3.27;  15,  4.12;  and 
above  all  on  the  fact  that  the  Gentile  converts  had  received  at 
their  baptism  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  the  supreme  messianic  blessing, 
15,  8;  Gal.  3,  2.  If  Jews  already  possessing  circumcision  and  law 
could  only  receive  this  gift  by  fulfilling  the  conditions  for  bap- 
tism, why  should  circumcision  and  law  be  imposed  on  Gentile 
believers  already  possessing  the  Spirit? 

In  Luke's  report  of  the  public  Conference,  it  is  Peter  who 
advocates  Paul's  Gospel  of  freedom,  to  which  Paul  had  won  the 
three  Pillar  Apostles  in  the  private  Conference,  Gal.  2,  1  ff ;  and 
which  Peter  had  long  before  accepted  in  principle  and  acted  upon 
in  his  ministry  to  Cornelius.  The  summary  of  his  speech  contains 
his  reply  to  the  twofold  demand  of  the  Judaizers.  He  first  refers 
in  vss.  6-9  to  his  special  divine  commission  to  admit  the  Gentiles; 
and  to  the  divine  witness  to  their  right  of  admission  into  the 
Church  in  their  reception  of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  Circumcision 
is,  therefore,  not  a  condition  for  Gentile  salvation,  since  they 
already  have  the  same  earnest  of  it  as  Jewish  believers  in  their 
possession  of  the  same  indwelling  of  the  Spirit.    In  vss.  9-11  he 


I 


|THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  191 

turns  to  the  second  demand  of  the  Judaizers:  Gentile  observance 
of  Mosaic  legalism;  and  again  advocates  their  freedom  from  it. 
It  was  a  yoke  the  Jews  were  not  able  to  bear;  a  law  they  could 
not  fulfill  and  secure  their  salvation  by  obedience  to  it.  It  would 
be  a  trial  of  God  to  impose  it  on  the  Gentiles  as  a  condition  of 
salvation.  They  will  be  saved  like  the  Jewish  Christians  by  the 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  And  he  can  confidently  appeal  to  his 
hearers'  reliance  on  this  salvation  by  grace,  since  otherwise  they 
would  not  have  sought  justification  by  repentance  and  faith  in 
Christ.  James  concludes  the  discussion  by  first  quoting  the 
prediction  of  Gentile  election.  This  was  not  merely  to  prove  the 
teaching  of  universalism  in  the  Old  Testament,  with  which  his 
hearers  would  be  familiar;  but  to  point  out  that  the  prediction 
had  been  fulfilled  in  the  election  of  the  Gentiles  in  vs.  14,  and  their 
admission  to  the  Church,  although  uncircumcised,  through  Peter's 
divinely  directed  ministry  to  them.  He  next  supports  Peter's 
advocacy  of  their  freedom  from  Mosaic  legalism:  not  to  trouble 
them,  vs.  19;  to  lay  upon  them  no  greater  burden  than  the  four 
necessary  things,  vs.  29. 

It  will  contribute  to  the  understanding  of  these  four  interdic- 
tions of  the  accepted  text,  to  recall  at  once  that  by  this  action  of 
the  Conference,  Gentile  freedom  has  been  won.  The  victory  is 
recognized  in  Antioch,  15,  31,  where  the  Church  upon  reading 
the  epistle,  rejoiced  for  the  exhortation,  TrapdKXiycrts.  The  South 
Galatian  Churches  received  the  decisions,  16,  5,  and  were  strength- 
ened in  faith.  And  Paul  declares,  Gal.  2,  6-9,  that  at  the  Con- 
ference the  Pillar  Apostles  'imported  nothing,  added  nothing  to 
me,  but  heartily  recognized  my  mission,'  Lightfoot,  in  loc. 

Yet  with  our  accepted  text  of  the  decision,  that  victory  is  at 
least  largely  compromised,  if  not  lost.  Instead  of  the  freedom  of 
faith,  there  is  imposed  upon  Gentile  believers  a  series  of  food  pre- 
cepts, singularly  grouped  with  an  injunction  against  fornication. 
Hence  have  been  formed  critical  theories,  in  some  cases  denying 
the  authenticity  of  the  decrees,  or  more  usually  assigning  them  to 
a  period  later  than  the  Conference. "*  By  those,  however,  who 
maintain  the  historicity  of  the  decrees  in  their  present  text  and 
position  in  Acts  15,  several  distinct  explanations  of  the  addition 

*  See  Moflfatt,  Introduction,  307  ff .  The  special  literature  on  the  Decrees 
is  listed  very  fully  in  K.  Six,  Das  Aposteldekret,  1912. 


192    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

of  these  injunctions  are  proposed.  Frequently  they  are  regarded 
as  a  compromise  with  the  Judaizers'  demands  of  legahstic  ob- 
servances. But  the  issue  between  them  and  Paul  admitted  of  no 
compromise.  Nor  could  the  four  prohibitions  be  a  compromise 
satisfactory  to  either  side.  They  would  be  to  the  Judaizers  no 
possible  equivalent  for  circumcision  and  the  general  Jewish  ritual 
and  customs.  To  the  Gentile  Christians  three  of  the  precepts 
would  be  viewed  as  compelling  their  submission  to  certain  cus- 
tomary Jewish  food  regulations,  even  in  their  private  life.  A 
second  explanation  has  therefore  been  proposed:  the  four  prohi- 
bitions were  added  as  conditions  of  the  intercourse  of  Jewish  and 
Christian  disciples  in  matters  of  food.  Yet  these  would  be  far 
from  fulfilling  the  requirements  of  Jewish  food  regulations  for 
those  in  the  Dispersion,  as  found  in  the  tractate  'Aboda  Zara.' 
And  they  were  not  reckoned  as  sufficient  conditions  for  table- 
fellowship  in  the  conflict  at  Antioch,  Gal.  2,  11  ff.,  which,  in 
agreement  with  Moffatt,  p.  101,  followed  Gal.  2,  1  ff.  and  Acts  15. 
Paul's  silence  concerning  the  decrees  in  this  passage  is  not  proof 
of  his  ignorance  of  them,  but  it  points  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
not  made  with  reference  to  table-fellowship.  As  stated  mote 
generally  by  Moffatt,  101,  Six,  31,  and  Zahn,  Introd.,  Ill,  153, 
they  were  not  concerned  with  the  regulation  of  the  social  inter- 
course of  Jewish  and  Gentile  Christians. 

For  the  same  reason  the  more  widely  accepted  explanation 
offered  by  Wendt  and  many  others,  is  inadequate.  They  hold 
that  the  prohibitions  are  those  observed  by  the  godfearers;  and 
are  now  enjoined  as  a  fitting  means  to  make  possible  a  certain 
degree  of  intercourse  between  circumcised  and  uncircumcised 
believers.  The  Gentile  believers  could  observe  the  two  relating  to 
idolatry  and  fornication,  as  agreeing  with  the  Christian  moral 
view;  and  the  other  two,  out  of  consideration  for  the  legal  restric- 
tions of  the  Jews.  But  such  compliance  could  effect  no  real  in- 
tercourse. This,  moreover,  was  not  the  object  of  the  prohibitions. 
Their  direct  aim  is  to  declare  Gentile  freedom  from  legalism;  and 
the  three  precepts  viewed  as  food  regulations  were  legalistic. 

We  notice,  however,  that  in  Wendt's  view  two  of  the  four 
prohibitions  are  recognized  as  moral  and  not  ceremonial  prescrip- 
tions. This  trend  is  still  more  noticeable  in  Hort's  discussion, 
Jvd.  Christianity  y  71  ff.    The  precepts  in  his  view  are  *  concrete 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  193 

indications  of  pure  religion  and  not  of  Judaism  in  the  exclusive 
sense.  They  were  none  the  worse  for  being  coincident  with  hal- 
lowed Jewish  laws  or  traditions,  though  this  was  not  the  source 
of  their  authority.  It  was  a  clear  gain  that  their  agreement  with 
the  inherited  moral  associations  of  Jews  should  make  the  whole 
arrangement  more  acceptable  to  the  Jewish  party  in  the  Church, 
since  they  were  not  of  a  nature  to  suggest  any  kind  of  obligation  on 
Gentile  converts  to  obey  any  part  of  the  Mosaic  law.'  And  he 
proceeds  to  develop  the  spiritual  significance  of  three  of  the 
precepts,  those  concerning  idolatry,  fornication  and  blood,  as 
related  to  communion  with  God,  to  the  most  intimate  form  of 
communion  with  man  and  to  reverence  for  the  mystery  of  life  in 
abstention  from  blood.  This  clearly  approximates  closely  to  a 
recognition  of  the  decrees  not  as  food  regulations,  but  as  precepts 
concerning  fundamental  moral  principles.  But  the  obstacle  to  a 
full  recognition  of  this  character  is  the  prohibition  in  our  text  of 
'things  strangled.'  Hort  points  out  the  difficulty  caused  by  its 
addition  to  the  other  precepts,  and  concludes  that  it  'must  at 
present  be  left  unsolved.' 

In  consequence  of  these  several  difficulties  of  conforming  not 
only  Gal.  2  but  also  Luke's  evident  aim  in  Acts  15  to  record  a 
victory  for  Gentile  freedom,  with  the  view  of  the  decrees  as  Jewish 
food  rules,  which  '  things  strangled'  of  our  text  involves,  it  has  been 
proposed  to  reject  ttvlktov  and  to  regard  the  three  remaining 
prohibitions  as  moral  prescriptions.  In  support  of  this  rejection  is 
the  historical  fact  that  'there  is  no  evidence  of  an  exactly  corre- 
sponding usage  in  the  first  or  in  any  earlier  century,'  Hort,  p.  73; 
and  the  textual  fact  that  Codex  D  and  several  western  writers 
omit  TTVLKTov  and  add  the  Golden  Rule.^  The  available  textual 
evidence  attests  the  existence  of  both  forms  of  the  text  in  the 
middle  of  the  second  century.  Those  who  retain  the  word  account 
for  its  omission  either  as  accidental,  or  because  the  rule  had  become 
obsolete,  or  on  account  of  its  obscurity,  or  as  an  intentional  change 
'to  do  away  with  the  Judaic  and  ceremonial  character  of  the 
decrees  and  to  substitute  the  moral  prescription  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount. '    By  those  who  reject  it,  its  insertion  is  explained  as  a 

*  The  textual  evidence  in  the  apparatus  of  the  critical  texts  is  discussed  in 
Zahn,  Introd.,  Ill,  33  f.;  G.  Resch,  T.  U.,  Bd.  28,  pp.  7  fif.;  K.  Six,  Apos- 
teldekret,  pp.  6  ff. 


194    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

transfer  to  the  test  of  a  marginal  gloss  interpreting  the  prohibition 
of  blood  .^ 

The  Western  text  which  omits  the  word,  and  the  explanation  of 
the  precepts  as  moral  rules,  is  rejected  by  the  majority  of  scholars. 
But  this  view  of  the  decrees  is  defended  by  Hilgenfeld,  Resch, 
Hamack  and  LakeJ  Adopting  this  view  we  find  that  the  recogni- 
tion by  James  of  Gentile  election  and  his  proposal  of  the  three 
precepts  are  directly  parallel  to  Peter's  advocacy  of  Gentile  free- 
dom from  circumcision  and  legalism.  Our  conclusion,  reversing 
Wendt's  statement,  is  that  the  prohibitions  are  concerned  with  the 
general  moral  behavior  which  Gentile  Christians  are  to  observe 
without  reference  to  Mosaic  law.  This  concurrence  of  Gentile 
freedom  from  Mosaic  law  with  the  duty  of  fulfillment  of  all  moral 
law  was  later  formulated  by  Paul  in  I  Cor.  9,  21:  I  became  'to 
them  that  are  without  the  law,  as  without  the  law;  no*t  being 
without  law  to  God,  but  under  law  to  Christ, '  which  is  *the  law  of 
the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus'  Rom.  8,  2?  Viewed  thus  as  moral 
precepts,  the  prohibitions  can  be  concrete  references  to  duty  as 
related  to  God,  neighbor  and  self,  to  use  a  grouping  familiar  from 
the  first,  in  Christ's  summary  of  the  law.  This  is  by  no  means  to 
regard  them,  with  TertuUian  in  his  Montanist  period,  De  Pudi- 
citia,  12,  as  statements  of  the  unpardonableness  of  the  sins  of 
idolatry,  homicide  and  adultery. 

Such  a  summary  reference  and  the  definite  terms  employed  in 
it,  naturally  present  the  chief  difficulty  in  accepting  this  view.   To 

•Six,  who  regards  the  precepts  as  food  rules,  admits  the  uncertainty  of 
TTVLKTOV  being  in  the  original  text;  and  advances  the  conjecture  that  it  was  in- 
cluded in  the  proposal  of  James,  but  omitted  in  the  decrees,  either  for  brevity 
or  as  being  included  in  the  interdiction  of  blood.  Later  the  texts  were  con- 
formed in  the  manuscripts  of  the  Orient,  where  famiharity  with  Semitic  food 
rules  would  justify  the  explanatory  addition.  A.  Seeberg,  Die  beiden  Wege, 
p.  82  f.,  had  earher  conjectured  that  James  had  proposed  four  rules,  but  con- 
sented to  the  adoption  of  but  two:  the  prohibition  of  the  specific  heathen  sins 
of  eating  things  sacrificed  to  idols  and  fornication.  Later,  the  other  two  in- 
junctions were  added  from  the  Jewish  Two  Ways. 

'Hilgenfeld,  Z.  /.  vnsa.  Theol,  1899,  p.  147  flf.;  and  Acta  AposL,  247  ff.; 
G.  Resch,  T.  U.,  1905,  Bd.  28.H.3,  pp.  1-179;  Hamack,  Acts,  p.  248  ff.;  Lake, 
Rev.  of  Theol.  and  Philosophy,  1905,  pp.  391  ff.;  and  Church  Quarterly  Review, 
1911,  p.  346  fiF. 

*ICoT.  9,  21.    Tots  iivdfjLOis  C)s  &vofjLos,  fiif  dv  &vofjLos  dtov  AXX' 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  195 

remove  it,  the  following  considerations  may  be  offered.  The  fact 
of  compression  is  not  in  itself  strange.  The  prohibitions  are  given 
as  the  conclusion  of  the  speech  of  James,  which  is  not  further 
reported  in  the  condensed  narrative.  Similarly  they  are  next 
referred  to  only  in  the  conclusion  of  the  brief  commendatory  letter 
for  Silas  and  Judas,  who  are  to  report  6td  \6yov  the  action  of  the 
Conference  which  is  therefore  compressed  in  the  summary  of  the 
precepts.  Further  they  are  to  be  understood  as  summing  up  the 
fundamental  topics  of  moral  instruction  given  to  converts.  This 
is  indicated  in  part  by  the  negative  form,  which  is  a  characteristic 
of  Jewish  moral  catechetical  moral  teaching,  cf.  the  Didache,  1-6, 
and  of  its  parallels  in  the  New  Testament;  and  was  obviously 
specially  suited  for  converts  from  heathen  inmiorality.  The  three 
topics,  moreover,  are  the  essential  subjects  of  the  instruction  in  the 
literature  of  the  Jewish  propaganda.  And  further,  they  reappear 
freely  developed  in  various  combinations  and  definite  applications 
in  the  hortatory  sections  of  the  New  Testament  Epistles.  In 
particular  their  ampUfication  appears  in  the  numerous  sin-Usts 
throughout  the  New  Testament.  It  will  be  found  that  the  longer 
lists  and  the  extended  general  moral  exhortations  tend  to  groupings 
around  these  three  precepts.  An  interesting  instance  of  the 
controlling  position  of  idolatry,  fornication  and  murder  in  the  sin- 
lists  will  appear  upon  a  comparison  of  the  lists  in  Rev.  9,  20  ff. ; 
21,  8;  and  22,  15.  The  clearest  illustration  is  given  in  Paul's 
summary  of  his  Gentile  propaganda  preaching,  Rom.  1,  18  ff.  He 
there  first  denounces  idolatry,  vss.  18-23;  next  sins  of  personal  im- 
purity, vss.  24-28;  then  in  vss.  28-32  is  his  list  of  21  or  22  vices  in 
the  sphere  of  tcl  nrj  KadriKovTa:  failures  in  'duties  which  concern 
mankind  in  general,'  and  whose  practicers  are  worthy  of  death .^ 
In  the  earUer  Ust,  Gal.  5,  19,  which  he  reminds  them  is  already 
familiar  from  the  preparatory  moral  instruction,  all  three  topics  of 
the  precepts  are  expanded:  first,  three  sins  of  impurity;  next,  two 
relative  to  idolatry,  with  which  may  be  compared  the  lists  already 
cited  from  the  Revelation;  concluding  with  ten  sins  against  men. 
All  three  classes  of  sins  occur  again  in  I  C.  5,  9,  and  1 1 ;  and  6,  9.  In 
these  is  illustrated  the  freedom  in  compressing  the  lists  in  the 

9  deocTvyeLS  is  not  an  exception:  "ubique  significat  hominem  Dis  homini- 
busque  exosum,  i.  e.,  hominem  insigniter  improbum,"  Fritzsche,  Ep.  ad  Rom. 
I.  85. 


196    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

primitive  catechism,  cp.  6,  9,  and  in  amplifying  any  or  all  the 
three  precepts  of  the  Conference.  The  two  separated  Usts  in 
II  Cor.  12,  20  f.,  are  grouped  respectively  as  sins  against  men  and 
as  sins  of  impurity.  The  two  Usts  in  I  Pet.  4,  3  and  15,  cover  in  the 
first  group  impurities  and  idolatries;  and  in  the  other,  sins  against 
men. 

The  exhortations  against  sins  against  'the  neighbor,'  Ephes. 
4,  25  ff.,  which  are  contrasted  in  5,  2  with  '  the  walk  in  love,'  are 
followed  by  those  against  the  sin  of  fornication  and  its  approaches, 
concluding  with  6  eanv  clSwXoXdrprys.  The  Colossian  parallel 
presents  at  3,  5,  a  list  relating  to  fornication,  again  ending  with  a 
reference  to  idolatry;  next,  at  vs.  8,  a  list  of  sins  towards  men, 
which  is  contrasted  with  a  related  hst  of  duties  to  men,  vs.  12.13, 
which  are  sunmied  up,  vs.  14,  in  love  as  the  bond  of  perfectness. 
We  also  find  parallels  to  '  briefly  comprehending  in  one  word '  each 
of  these  fundamental  breaches  of  morahty,  in  the  summing  up  the 
precepts  of  all  duty  to  man  as  'love,'  Rom.  13,  8;  Gal.  5,  14;  cp. 
Ephes.  5,  12  as  the  sunmiary  with  ovv  of  4,  25-32;  and  Col.  3,  14,  of 
vss.  12.13.  In  the  Epistle  of  James  2,  8,  this  love  of  neighbor  has 
itself  the  title  of  the  Royal  Law,  ^aaiXLKbv,  as  supreme  and  as  con- 
trolUng  all  phases  of  duty  to  man. 

The  special  difficulty  remains:  James's  recapitulation  of  prohibi- 
tions of  sins  against  men  as  'abstinence  from  blood.'  The  possibil- 
ity of  such  a  compressed  figurative  use  of  blood  for  murder,  is 
given  in  the  fact  that  the  Epistle  of  James  is  likewise  characterized 
throughout  by  terse,  epigranamatic,  graphic  expressions.  It  is 
more  definitely  suggestive  that  in  the  passage  Jas.  4,  1  ff.,  obscure 
by  very  reason  of  its  abrupt,  vigorous  and  bold  figures,  we  find  the 
sins  of  lust,  selfishness  and  jealous  hatred  of  men  characterized 
as  wars,  battles  and  even  murders  by  those  who  are  denounced  as 
adulteresses  and  enemies  of  God.  Paul  too  has  summed  up  the 
issues  of  sins  against  men,  Gal.  5,  13,  in  a  figure  of  destruction 
comparable  to  that  of  the  '  blood '  in  the  summaiy  of  James.  The 
Galatians  are  as  in  Acts  15  called  to  freedom,  which  yet  is  coinci- 
dent with  the  duty  of  mutual  service  in  love.  And  as  the  whole 
law  is  fulfilled  in  the  one  saying  'thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself  so  its  nonfulfilbnent  is  expressed  in  'biting,  devouring  and 
being  destroyed  by  each  other':  SAkj^ctc,  KaTiadUre,  iLva\o)dr}T€. 
One  further  parallel  to  this  summing  up  of  sins  against  man  as 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  197 

murder,  destruction  or  'blood,'  occurs  in  I  John  3,  11  ff.  The 
antithesis  of  brotherly  love  is  Cain  who  slew  his  brother,  and  that 
because  his  works  were  wicked.  And  likewise  every  one  who  hates 
his  brother,  is  a  manslayer.  Here  then  we  recognize  the  basis  of 
this  view  of  murder  and  blood  as  the  outcome  of  sin  against 
brother  men,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  Mtw.  5,  21 :  ov 
4>ovev(Teis  includes  prohibition  of  anger,  of  bitter  and  contemptu- 
ous speech  as  approaches  to  murder.  And  ov  ixoix^vaeis  too 
includes  the  initial  lustful  glance,  and  as  in  Ephes.  5,  3,  all  phases 
and  forms  of  impurity. 

Another  illustration  of  the  view  here  taken  of  the  prohibitions  as 
moral  injunctions  may  be  added  from  the  Didache,  chap.  3.  First 
remarking  that  the  exhortations  against  the  sins  of  the  Way  of 
Death,  begin  with  murder,  fornication  and  idolatry,  we  notice  next 
that  these  terms  sum  up  the  issues  of  special  sins.  ^'Be  not  prone 
to  anger,  for  anger  leads  to  murder;  nor  jealous,  nor  contentious, 
nor  wrathful;  for  of  all  these,  murders  are  engendered.  My  child, 
be  not  lustful,  for  lust  leads  to  fornication;  nor  foul-speaking,  nor 
with  uplifted  eyes;  for  of  all  these  adulteries  are  engendered.  My 
child  be  not  a  dealer  in  omens,  since  it  leads  to  idolatry;  nor  an 
enchanter,  nor  an  astrologer,  nor  a  magician,  nor  be  willing  to  look 
at  them;  for  of  all  these,  idolatry  is  engendered. " 

Holding  that  the  injunctions  of  Acts  15  are  recapitulations  of 
fundamental  moral  law,  we  recognize  in  the  further  statement  that 
only  their  observance  is  necessary  for  Gentile  converts,  that  the 
whole  question  of  Gentile  freedom  from  Mosaic  legalism  was  then 
definitively  settled.  This  Jewish  Christian  recognition  of  'the 
equal  validity  of  a  Christianity  not  bound  by  the  law,  could  not 
indeed  but  react  on  men's  thoughts  on  their  own  relation  to  the 
law, '  Hort,  Jud.  Christianity,  82.  As  we  know,  it  led  eventually  to 
their  recognition  of  the  breaking  down  of  the  middle  wall  of  parti- 
tion, the  law  of  commandments,  whereby  the  Gentiles  are  fellow- 
citizens  with  the  saints  and  are  of  the  household  of  God,  Ephes.  2, 
14-22;  and  that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  can  be  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  for  all  are  one  man  in  him.  Gal.  3,  23-29.  But  the  New 
Testament  writings  and  the  history  of  the  Jewish  Christian  sects 
in  the  succeeding  centuries  ^^  reveal  that  the  course  of  this  develop- 

i"Lightfoot,  Gal.Sded.,  300  ff.;  Hort,  Jud.  Christianity,  164  ff.;  Hoennicke, 
op.  cU.,  p.  177  ff.,  225  ff. 


198    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

ment  was  from  the  first  opposed  by  the  irreconcilable  Judaizing 
element  of  the  Palestinian  Church. 

We  learn  of  their  initial  success  at  Antioch  in  Gal.  2,  11  ff., 
where  they  were  able  to  dissuade  Peter  and  Barnabas  from  con- 
tinuance of  their  table-fellowship  with  the  Gentile  Christians. 
That  these  two  Jewish  Christians  should  have  thus  met  on  equal 
footing  with  converted  Gentiles,  attests  their  acceptance  of  the  full 
equaUty  of  Gentiles  in  the  Christian  Brotherhood.  Upon  this 
principle  Peter  had  acted  at  Caesarea,  and  presumably  Barnabas 
also  in  his  association  with  Paul  in  the  mission  work  as  well  as  at 
Antioch.  It  was  in  fact  involved  in  the  action  of  the  Jerusalem 
Conference,  cp.  Bacon,  Story  of  St.  Paul,  143.  Their  withdrawal 
therefore  from  table-fellowship  is  openly  denounced  by  Paul  as 
*  hypocrisy' :  'the  assumption  of  a  part  which  masked  their  genuine 
feelings  and  made  them  appear  otherwise  than  they  were, '  Light- 
foot  m  loco;  i.  e.,  with  Bacon,  140,  Hhey  were  false  to  their  acknowl- 
edged principles.'  The  suggestion  of  Hort,  p.  78,  seems  probable: 
that  they  were  persuaded  thus  to  dissimulate  by  '  a  plausible  plea 
of  inopportuneness.  Now  that  we  know  what  offense  our  fra- 
ternizing will  give  at  Jerusalem,  we  will  cease  from  it,  without 
rejecting  them  or  telHng  them  to  be  circumcised.'  But  in  such 
separation,  Paul  might  well  detect  the  aim  of  the  Judaizers  to  re- 
duce the  uncircumcised  converts  to  the  position  of  the  godfearers 
in  Judaism.  And  he  therefore  denounces  Peter's  withdrawal 
not  only  as  inconsistency  but  also  as  tantamount  to  a  declaration 
that  fullness  of  Christian  life  is  the  privilege  of  Jewish  Christians 
only,  and  thereby  as  a  compulsion  of  the  Gentiles  seeking  this 
fullness,  to  become  and  to  live  as  Jews.  This,  however,  is  not  only 
a  contradiction  of  the  emancipating  action  of  the  Conference;  but 
beyond  that,  it  is  a  denial  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  to  which  Peter 
himself  had  borne  witness  in  his  speech  at  Jerusalem:  that  both 
Jew  and  Gentile  are  saved  through  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus; 
and  hence  through  law  we  have  died  unto  law  that  we  may  live 
unto  God. 

From  Paul's  later  references  to  teter,  and  especially  from 
I  Peter,  it  has  been  generally  concluded  that  Peter  accepted  the 
rebuke  and  the  full  issues  of  the  principle  of  the  common  salvation 
and  Gospel  freedom.  But  whatever  the  outcome  in  this  instance, 
we  next  find  the  Judaizers  taking  a  still  bolder  line.    At  Antioch 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  199 

they  had  dissuaded  Jewish  leaders  from  intercourse  with  Gentile 
believers;  now  in  the  field  of  Paul's  first  mission  they  proceed  to 
detach  Gentile  converts  themselves  from  their  Apostle  and  his 
teaching.  Their  method  in  this  counter-mission  is  distinctly 
reflected  in  Paul's  counter  attack  upon  them  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians.  Regarding  this  as  his  earUest  letter,  written  from 
Greece  in  the  second  missionary  journey,  we  conclude  that  his 
opponents  intruded  themselves  into  the  Galatian  churches  directly 
after  they  had  received  the  Jerusalem  decision  from  Paul,  and  had 
by  him  been  strengthened  in  the  faith,  Acts  16,  4.  It  could  be 
anticipated  that  at  this  juncture  their  endeavor  *  to  shake  the 
allegiance'  of  the  Galatians  and  Ho  reverse  the  Gospel'  which 
they  had  accepted,  Gal.  1,  7,  would  be  related  to  their  own  inter- 
pretation of  the  decision  of  the  Conference,  and  to  their  attitude 
towards  Paul,  his  teaching  and  its  issues.  And  in  fact  we  recognize 
from  the  letter  the  controlUng  features  of  their  constant  attack. 
It  was  based  negatively  on  their  discrediting  the  personal  character 
and  the  aims  of  Paul,  as  seeking  to  please  men  by  offering  them 
emancipation  from  law;  by  disparaging  his  Apostolic  authority 
and  competence,  in  contrasting  him  with  the  Jerusalem  Apostles; 
and  thereby  denying  the  validity  and  sufficiency  of  his  Gospel. 
Recognizing  no  doubt,  in  connection  with  the  action  of  the  Con- 
ference, the  divine  calling  of  the  Gentiles,  their  gift  of  the  Spirit  and 
their  freedom,  as  uncircumcised  Gentiles,  from  legaUsm,  they  yet 
bewitched  them  with  the  warning  that  all  this  wasbut  introductory 
to  a  full  participation  in  the  privileges  of  the  Church  of  Israel's 
Messiah.  Since  the  entire  doctrinal  defense  of  Paul's  Gospel 
centers  in  the  discussion  of  the  promise  to  Abraham  and  of  the 
purpose  and  perpetuity  of  the  law,  it  may  reasonably  be  inferred 
that  the  Judaizers  insisted  that  inheritance  of  the  covenant  prom- 
ises to  Abraham  and  his  seed  was  conditioned  upon  acceptance  of 
circumcision ;  and  that  the  life  of  the  circumcised  must  be  under  the 
divinely  given  and  perpetual  law  of  Moses.  Under  the  conditions 
of  life  in  the  Dispersion,  a  full  and  strict  observance  may  not  have 
been  urged.  But  from  circumcision  no  dispensation  was  possible; 
even  Paul,  they  charged,  5,  11,  still  preaches  circumcision  on  occa- 
sion. Without  it,  the  Galatians  could  have  been  warned  by  the 
Judaizers  that  they  were  still  in  the  position  of  godfearers,  though 
keeping  the  Jerusalem  injunctions  and  now  adopting  observance  of 


200    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Jewish  holy  days.  But  they  were  not  yet  members  of  the  Israel  of 
God,  and  their  boasted  Uberty  would  be  found  to  be  an  occasion  for 
inmiorality,  cp.  5,  13. 

It  was  the  Judaistic  attack  along  these  or  closely  similar  lines, 
that  called  forth  the  apology  and  polemic  of  the  Apostle's  weight- 
iest Epistles  for  the  establishment  of  faith  in  the  Apostolic  age; 
and  as  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  philosophy  of  salvation  and 
of  Christian  freedom  of  faith,  in  all  later  ages.  In  Galatians, 
against  the  personal  attacks,  he  gives  at  once  his  apologia  for  his 
divinely  commissioned  Apostleship ;  the  recognition  of  it  and  of  his 
Gospel  by  the  Jerusalem  Apostles;  and  his  vindication  of  the 
full  issues  of  this  Gospel  in  the  equaUty  of  Jew  and  Gentile  in  the 
Church,  even  against  the  temporizing  of  Peter  and  Barnabas.  In 
support  of  the  truth  and  power  of  his  Gospel,  he  can  appeal 
directly  to  the  reUgious  experience  of  his  readers.  Through  his 
ministry  they  had  at  the  beginning  received  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  in 
which  also  by  faith  they  wait  for  the  hope  of  righteousness,  3,  3; 
5,  5.  This  gift,  the  supreme  blessing,  the  law  could  not  provide; 
and  the  law  therefore  is  not  needed  to  supplement  or  perfect  it. 
The  Judaizers'  arguments  from  the  promise  to  Abraham  and  from 
the  law  are  then  turned  against  them  by  his  establishment  of  the 
justification  of  Abraham  by  faith,  of  sonship  to  Abraham  by  faith, 
of  the  transitory  nature  of  the  law  and  of  its  function  to  '*  lead  the 
way  for  the  dispensation  of  faith.'  Any  suggestion  or  proposal  of  a 
partial  observance  of  the  law  upon  accepting  circumcision,  is 
repelled  with  the  warning  that  no  compromise  is  possible  between 
seeking  salvation  by  a  complete  fulfillment  of  law,  and  by  an  abso- 
lute reliance  on  divine  grace.  And  finally,  life  in  the  Spirit,  in  the 
freedom  for  which  Christ  set  us  free,  will  give  the  inner  illumination 
and  invigoration  for  the  fulfilhnent  of  the  whole  law,  which  is 
summed  up  in  love. 

His  success  in  establishing  the  Galatians  by  this  defense  of  his 
Apostleship  and  gospel,  is  concluded  by  B.  Weiss,  Introd.,  §  18.  6. 
n.  2,  from  the  fact  that  'no  historical  trace  indicates  that  he 
ever  again  had  need  to  warn  the  Galatian  churches  against  rever- 
sion to  Jewish  legalism.'  It  could  in  addition  be  recognized  from 
the  fact  of  his  repetition  and  development  of  the  teachings  of 
Galatians  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  as  an  already  assured 
means  for  their  establishment.    It  is  now  very  generally  accepted 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  201 

that  the  Church  of  Rome  was  composed  predominantly  of  Gentiles; 
and  that  no  local  judaistic  agitation  is  presupposed  in  the  Epistle. 
The  presence  of  this  prominent  anti-judaistic  element  in  the  letter 
is  accounted  for  as  a  sunmiing  up  for  the  Romans,  in  case  his  pro- 
posed visit  to  them  should  be  prevented,  of  the  result  of  his 
successful  vindication  of  his  Gospel,  in  order  to  guard  them  against 
any  possible  attack  by  his  judaizing  opponents. 

Yet  concerning  their  later  movements  in  the  Apostolic  Age,  we 
have  at  most  only  indirect  allusions.  As  McGiffert  concludes, 
Apos.  Age,  p.  228:  'There  is  no  sign  in  any  other  of  Paul's  Epistles 
that  the  judaizers  were  causing  him  serious  trouble;  his  victory 
over  them  seems  to  have  been  complete,  p.  232;  and  p.  389,  we 
have  no  trace  of  their  activity  in  any  part  of  his  missionary  field,' 
in  the  interval  between  Galatians  and  Philippians,  and,  as  he 
decides,  not  in  that  Epistle  or  later.  The  absence  of  any  allusion  to 
them  in  I  and  II  Thess.  shows  that  they  had  not  advanced  iato 
Macedonia.  Nor,  as  will  appear  later,  are  they  to  be  recognized  in 
those  who  in  Corinth  say  '  I  am  of  Cephas,  I  am  of  Christ'  "  It  is 
at  least  remarkable  that  the  (first)  epistle  is  to  all  appearances 
free  from  direct  or  indirect  warnings  against  judaistic  limitations 
of  the  gospel,"  Hort,  op.  cit.,  p.  95.  McGiffert,  p.  315,  distinguishes 
the  opposing  Jewish  Christians  of  II  Cor.  from  the  Judaizers;  and 
we  also  follow  him  in  failing  to  find  a  reference  to  Judaizers  at  Rome 
in  Php.  1, 15  ff.,  or  in  the  opponents  denounced  in  Chap.  3,  although 
we  cannot  adopt  his  view  that  the  latter  were  unbelieving  Jews. 

The  calmer  tone  of  Romans  in  summing  up  his  antijudaistic 
arguments,  reveals  increasing  confidence  of  success  in  repelling  any 
attack  from  that  quarter.  In  Ephesians  at  length  is  heard  the 
distinct  note  of  assured  triumph.  To  account  for  this  we  have 
indeed  no  knowledge  of  Judaistic  attack  and  defeat  in  Asia  or 
in  Rome.  Nor  can  the  altered  tone  of  Ephesians  be  due,  as  has 
been  suggested  by  Hort,  to  a  slackening  of  the  attack  parallel  to 
Paul's  enforced  inactivity  during  the  imprisonments  at  Caesarea 
and  Rome.  Clearly  his  retirement  from  the  scene  would  be  his 
opponents'  opportunity.  But  intervening  between  Romans  and 
Ephesians  is  his  last  visit  to  Jerusalem,  and  Luke's  account  of  his 
welcome  there  by  James  and  the  elders;  and  his  two  years'  impris- 
onment at  Caesarea,  in  which  Felix  permitted  his  friends  to 
minister  to  him.     Why  should  not  the  Jerusalem  leaders,  who 


202    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

unwittingly  had  put  him  in  this  peril  of  life,  avail  themselves  of 
this  opportunity  to  visit  him?  In  such  most  probable  conferences, 
and  certainly  in  conferences  with  the  Palestinian  Christians  of 
the  church  at  Csesarea,  the  way  was  opened  for  any  needed  mutual 
understandings,  and  for  a  general  Jewish  Christian  recognition  of 
the  full  membership  of  Gentiles  in  the  one  Church  of  Christ.  One 
means  in  particular  may  have  been  Paul's  repudiation,  as  in  Rom. 
3,  8;  chaps.  6  and  7,  of  the  perversions  of  his  teaching  of  justifica- 
tion and  freedom  by  his  antinomian  opponents,  against  whom  both 
Pauline  and  Palestinian  Christians  needed  to  work  together,  as 
against  a  common  enemy. 

The  unknown  course  of  events  in  the  two  years  of  Roman 
imprisonment  may  also  have  contributed  to  the  concord.  This 
result,  whatever  may  have  directly  led  to  it,  is  the  ground  of  the 
exultant  doxology  and  thanksgiving  of  Ephesians.  Instead  of  the 
earlier  defense  and  polemic  against  the  Judaizers,  there  is  now 
assurance  of  the  unity  of  Jewish  and  Gentile  Christians  in  Christ 
who  is  our  peace;  who  has  made  both  one;  who  has  abolished  the 
law  of  commandments  in  ordinances;  through  whom  both  have 
access  in  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father,  and  are  of  the  same  heavenly 
citizenship,  divine  household,  and  are  on  the  same  foundation 
builded  together  for  an  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit, 
Ephes.  2, 11-22.  That  this  is  not  merely  Paul's  spiritual  ideal  his 
shown  in  the  same  recognition  in  I  Peter,  written  also  to  Asia 
but  a  few  years  later,  of  the  union  of  Jew  and  Gentile  as  one  people 
of  God,  living  stones  built  up  as  a  spiritual  house,  to  be  a  holy 
priesthood  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  2, 4-10. 

We  shall  in  the  next  chapter  assign  most  of  the  remaining  ref- 
erences to  Jewish  Christian  opponents  of  Paul,  who  are  usually 
regarded  as  Judaizers,  to  a  separate  movement;  and  there  are 
few  other  probable  allusions  to  the  activity  of  Judaizers  in  the 
rest  of  the  New  Testament  writings,  except  it  be  in  the  Gospels. 
They  as  well  as  the  Epistles  were  written  for  establishment  in  the 
faith.  And  their  selection  of  Christ's  teachings  could  certainly 
have  been  influenced  by  the  need  of  basing  the  Church's  recogni- 
tion of  the  full  membership  of  Gentiles,  though  uncircumcised  and 
freejfrom  legalism,  upon  his  principles  of  universalism  and  higher 
fulfillment  of  law  and  on  his  commission  to  admit  the  nations  into 
his  Church  by  baptism.    But  decision  as  to  definite  allusions  in 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  203 

the  Gospels  to  the  Judaistic  controversy  or  its  stages,  is  affected 
by  the  present  disagreement  as  to  their  dates.  Moffatt,  Introd,, 
p.  255,  among  the  characteristics  of  Matthew,  views  our  First 
Evangelist  as  a  Jewish  Christian  'bringing  forth  out  of  his  treas- 
ures, things  new  and  old';  who  presents  both  particularistic  and 
catholic  Sayings;  the  Jewish  Christian  traits  of  his  Gospel  being 
due  both  to  Palestinian  traditions  and  to  the  thesis  of  his  own 
work,  viz.,  that  Christianity  as  the  new  law  and  righteousness  of 
God  had  superseded  the  old  as  a  revelation  of  God  to  men.  Mof- 
fatt, however,  assigns  our  Matthew  to  the  period  75-90  a.  d.  Yet 
if  it  was  written  at  the  end  of  the  seventh  decade,  or  with  Allen, 
still  earlier,  it  too  would  serve  among  its  other  aims  for  establish- 
ment in  the  universalism  and  freedom  of  the  Gospel  as  repre- 
sented by  I  Peter,  written  probably  but  a  few  years  earlier. 

Our  present  purpose  has  been  to  follow  the  rise  and  progress  of 
the  movement;  and  we  have  found  that  already  in  the  seventh 
decade  of  the  first  century,  it  has  been  definitely  repelled  by  repre- 
sentatives of  both  Gentile  and  Palestinian  Christians.  It  however 
still  persisted  as  a  force  to  be  most  seriously  reckoned  with;  al- 
though it  naturally  became  less  positively  aggressive  in  Gentile 
churches,  estabhshed  in  faith  and  freedom  by  Paul;  and  less  and 
less  influential  in  Jewish  Christian  Churches,  especially  after  the 
crisis  of  a.  d.  70,  which  finally  led  to  distinct  organizations  of  the 
Judaistic  element.  Their  later  history  is  traced  in  the  special 
works  already  referred  to,  note  10. 

Reference  may  be  made  at  this  point  to  the  possibility  of  an- 
other controversy  originating  from  Jewish  circles,  viz.,  from  the 
School  of  John  the  Baptist's  disciples.  After  their  report  of  his 
death  to  Jesus,  Mtw.  14,  12,  no  mention  of  them  is  made  until  a 
quarter  of  a  century  later.  Then  ApoUos  arrives  at  Ephesus, 
knowing  only  John's  baptism;  which  points  to  their  survival  in 
Alexandria.  And  shortly  after,  Paul  meets  at  Ephesus  with  twelve 
disciples  having  only  John's  baptism,  and  ignorant  of  any  other. 
Acts  18,  24-19,  7.  Yet  ApoUos  is  presented  as  a  Christian  who 
has  been  instructed  in  the  Way  of  the  Lord,  and  who  also  taught 
accurately  rk  irepl  to^p  'Irjaov,  Luke's  frequent  phrase  for  Gospel 
preaching.  The  twelve  men  are  also  regarded  by  Luke  as  jua^r/rat; 
and  Paul's  inquiry,  19,  2,  assumes  at  least  that  they  professed  to 
be  believers,  iriffTevaavres.    The  fact  of  the  survival  of  John's 


204    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

disciples,  especially  in  the  Dispersion,  presents  no  difficulty;  but 
that  ApoUos  and  the  others  knew  only  of  John's  baptism  and  yet 
are  connected  with  the  Christian  movement,  demands  the  illum- 
ination of  more  detailed  information  than  our  source  furnishes. 
Nevertheless  it  is  clear  that  it  is  still  a  Jewish  messianist  move- 
ment. ApoUos  especially  is  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  i,  e.,  from 
the  context,  in  the  messianic  prophecies,  cp.  18,  28.  Further,  it 
is  in  no  conscious  rivalry  or  opposition  to  the  Gospel.  There  is 
no  indication  that  Luke's  mention  of  the  incidents  is  intended  as 
an  allusion  to  a  Baptist  propaganda.  ApoUos  is  introduced  and 
characterized  in  connection  with  his  prominence  and  his  effective 
work  in  Ephesus  and  Corinth.  Both  in  his  case  and  in  that  of  the 
twelve,  Luke's  interest  in  relating  their  fuUer  instruction  in  the 
Gospel  and  the  Christian  baptism  and  spiritual  gifts  of  the  twelve, 
seems  to  be  to  show,  as  in  his  Gospel,  that  the  preparatory  min- 
istry and  preaching  of  John  received  its  fulfilhnent  in  discipleship 
to  Christ.  It  would  also  be  reasonable  to  conclude  from  the  char- 
acter of  these  references  in  Acts,  that  the  writer  indicates  by 
means  of  these  instances  that  the  surviving  groups  of  John's 
disciples  tended  in  general  not  to  competition  and  controversy 
with  the  Gospel  mission,  but  to  a  receptive  attitude  towards  it 
and  to  amalgamation  with  it. 

Nothing  further  is  known  of  their  activity  until,  in  any  case, 
near  the  close  of  the  first  century.  The  Synoptic  Gospels,  cp.  also 
Acts  10,  37  f.;  13,  24  f.,  which  appeared  in  this  interval  and  prob- 
ably within  its  earlier  half,  do  not  reveal  any  antagonism  or  con- 
troversy between  the  followers  of  Christ  and  John,  at  the  time  of 
their  composition.  Baldensperger  ^^  agrees  that  'in  the  circles  in 
which  the  Third  Gospel  arose,  nothing  was  yet  known  of  an  open 
enmity  of  John's  disciples  towards  Christianity.'  His  birth,  preach- 
ing and  baptism  are  recorded  as  a  divinely  predicted  and  approved 
preparation  and  witness  for  the  Gospel.  His  message  'Art  thou 
he  that  should  come  or  look  we  for  another,'  is  frankly  reported 
from  Q  by  Matthew  and  Luke,  with  no  suggestion  that  it  was 
being  exploited  by  his  later  disciples;  but  as  the  occasion  of  Christ's 
vindication  both  of  his  own  messianic  ministry  of  mercy,  and  of 
the  exalted  character  and  office  of  the  Baptist.  No  trace  of  an- 
tagonism to  the  Baptist's  disciples  is  discernible  in  the  Synoptic  ref- 
"  Der  Prolog  des  vierien  Evangeliuma,  p.  137. 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  205 

erences  to  their  fasts  and  prayers.  The  detailed  report  of  John's 
death  reveals  the  abiding  interest  and  the  reverence  of  the  Christian 
Church  for  his  character,  work  and  relation  to  the  Gospel,  which 
is  perfectly  expressed  in  the  collect  of  the  Western  Church  for 
the  feast  of  his  Nativity. 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel,  however,  it  is  very  generally  held  by  critics 
of  various  schools,  that  the  marked  and  repeated  emphasis  on 
the  contrast  between  Christ  and  the  Baptist  may  suggest  the 
Evangelist's  interest  in  counteracting  thereby  the  claims  of  some 
who  are  asserting  the  superiority  of  John;  cp.  1,  8.15.20  ff.;  3, 
26  ff.;  4,  1;  5,  35.36,  especially  if  with  Zahn  and  von  Soden  we 
read  fxel^(t)v;  and  10,  41.  Baldensperger  in  the  work  cited  above 
argues  that  this  contrast  is  made  in  denial  of  the  claims  of  the 
sect  of  the  Baptist's  disciples,  and  that  their  refutation  is  not 
merely  a  subordinate  aim  or  confined  to  the  passages  mentioned, 
but  is  one  of  the  strongest  motives,  p.  153,  the  aim  or  the  principal 
aim,  p.  165,  in  the  composition  of  the  Gospel.  He  accordingly 
interprets  both  details  of  the  narrative  and  the  development  of 
the  theology  as  an  apologetic  polemic  against  the  attacks  of  the 
School  of  the  Baptist.  He  has  first  to  account  for  their  antagonism 
in  this  late  period  by  such  conjectures  as  that  the  success  of  the 
Gospel  mission  in  drawing  away  their  disciples,  e.  g.,  Acts  19,  1  ff., 
embittered  those  who  still  adhered  to  their  School,  p.  107  f .  Their 
developing  conception  of  the  person  and  office  of  John  could  be 
based  on  Christian  tradition  and  writings;  especially  upon  Jesus' 
testimony  that  he  was  a  prophet  and  more  than  a  prophet,  p.  134. 
In  Luke's  account  of  the  Baptist's  birth,  they  could  find  so  many 
messianic  features  that  the  forerunner  was  advanced  hazardously 
near  the  Messiah;  and  only  one  step  more  was  needed  to  remove 
John  entirely  from  subordination  to  Jesus  and  to  place  him  di- 
rectly alongside  or  even  above  Jesus,  as  the  disciples  of  the  Baptist 
are  reported  to  have  done  in  the  Clementine  Recognitions,  I,  60. 
Next,  on  these  assumptions  their  polemic  against  Christianity, 
p.  116  ff,,  is  a  matter  of  conjectural  reconstruction  from  the 
Johannine  literature;  though  it  is  admitted  that  their  own  views 
and  peculiar  doctrines  cannot  thus  be  so  well  recognized.  Balden- 
sperger's  discussion  of  his  positions  are  more  directly  related  to 
the  criticism  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  than  to  the  history  of  the  con- 
troversy to  which  he  believes  it  to  point.    His  hypotheses  as  to 


206    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  origin  of  an  antagonism  of  the  Baptist's  followers  are  too 
insecure  to  form  a  probable  basis  for  his  construction  of  their 
assumed  polemic.  And  on  his  own  view,  p.  139  n.,  the  School 
soon  shrivelled  up  into  a  harmless  sect,  and  had  become  in  the 
age  of  Justin  Martyr  a  negligible  quantity,  cp.  Dial,  with  Trypho, 
ch.  8,  49  and  88;  although  he  insists  that  in  the  Apostolic  and  Post- 
Apostolic  age  it  played  a  greater  part  than  has  been  recognized, 
p.  151.12 

Weinel  has  developed  the  theory  by  asserting  that  the  antago- 
nism is  found  not  only  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  but  appears  also  in 
the  earlier  period  of  the  composition  of  the  Synoptics.  In  these 
and  Acts  and  in  an  assumed  addition  in  Q,  'he  that  is  but  little 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater  than  he,'  Mtw.  11,  11,  he 
asserts  that  there  has  been  a  distinct  transformation  of  the  tradi- 
tion, with  a  creative  apologetic  purpose,  to  meet  the  claims  of  a 
competing  mission  and  baptism  of  John's  disciples.  ^^  Wrede, 
however,  while  recognizing  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  groups 
of  Baptist  disciples  when  the  Fourth  Gospel  appeared,  though 
what  we  actually  know  is  extremely  scanty;  and  also  the  possi- 
bility that  the  Gospel  along  with  its  opposition  to  Jews,  contains 
a  second  antithesis  against  these  disciples  of  John,  proposes  an- 
other explanation:  that  it  is  directed  against  a  Jewish  exploitation 
of  John  as  greater  than  Jesus.  In  such  a  case  there  would  be  no 
direct  controversy  with  John's  disciples,  nor  any  need  to  assume 
a  competing  School  of  the  Baptist.  He  leaves  the  question  open.^'* 
Not  so  Wemle.  In  his  view  John's  references  to  the  Baptist  com- 
plete a  transparent  apologetic  already  found  in  Matthew  and 
Luke,  which  was  framed  to  correct  the  Christian  tradition  and  to 
meet  Jewish  objections  of  the  inferiority  of  Jesus  to  John,  based 
upon  it.    He  finds  in  Luke  no  reason  for  the  conclusion  that  there 

"J.  B.  Lightfoot,  Colossians,  402  f.,  also  emphasizes  the  influence  of  the 
School  of  the  Baptist,  and  sees  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  evidence  of  its  direct 
antagonism:  setting  up  John  as  a  rival  messiah.  A.  Blakiston,  John  Baptist 
and  his  Relation  to  Jesus,  1912,  also  holds  that  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  directed 
against  the  School  of  the  Baptist.  Sanday,  Criticism  of  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
p.  84,  grants  that  '  there  may  be  a  certain  amount  of  polemical  or  apologetic 
reference  to  such  a  sect.' 

"  Biblische  Theologie  d.  Neuen  Tests.,  §  96.  Die  Polemik  gegen  den  Tltufer, 
462  ff. 

"  Wrede,  Vartrdge  u.  Studien,  p.  226. 


i 


THE  JUDAISTIC  CONTROVERSY  207 

was  a  historical  conflict  between  Christian  and  Baptist  disciples; 
or  that  the  Fourth  Gospel  was  called  forth  in  any  way  by  the 
Sect  of  the  Baptist.  ^^ 

We  have  concluded  with  him,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
occasion  of  the  contrast  between  Christ  and  the  Baptist  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  that  it  was  not  due  to  a  controversy  with  the  School 
of  John.  Moffatt,  Introd.  531,  holds  that  it  is  more  likely  that  the 
polemic  does  not  represent  a  direct  allusion  to  some  contemporary 
sect  of  John's  disciples;  but  forms  part  of  the  general  anti-Jewish 
tendency  of  the  Gospel,  and  is  at  best  subordinate.  But  Bacon's 
remark,  Story  of  St.  Paul,  180,  that  *  Gnosticism  fastened  upon  the 
leaderless  Johannine  movement  with  even  greater  ease  and  avidity 
than  upon  Christianity, '  suggests  the  possibiUty  that  the  manner 
of  presentation  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  of  the  relation  of  Christ  and 
the  Baptist  points  neither  to  a  controversy  with  the  School  of  the 
Baptist  nor  to  Jewish  exploitation  of  the  Baptist  against  Jesus;  but 
to  attempts  of  intruding  gnostic  teachers  to  support  their  tenets 
by  some  misuse  of  the  Gospel  tradition  concerning  the  Baptist. 
Moffatt,  p.  153,  mentions  that  MichaeUs  thought  of  the  connection 
of  disciples  of  the  Baptist  with  the  Colossian  heresy.  Zahn  too 
recognizes  that  the  polemic  in  the  Baptist  passages  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel. is  subordinate  to  the  Evangelist's  polemic  against  gnostic 
errors.  While  he  is  disposed  to  regard,  though  in  our  opinion 
without  sufficient  warrant,  these  errors  as  originating  with  some 
element  among  the  Baptist's  disciples,  he  is  yet  careful  not  to 
define  the  polemic  as  directed  against  the  Baptist  School  as  such. 
"  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  after  effects  of  the  wrong  attitude 
which  a  part  of  John's  disciples  took  towards  Jesus,  were  connected 
with,  or  contributed  to,  the  origin  of  the  movement  which  John 
opposes  by  his  strong  emphasis  on  the  incarnation,  the  truly 
human  life  and  death  of  Jesus,  as  well  upon  his  bodily  resurrec- 
tion, "  Introd.  Ill,  323.  Still  more  definitely,  III,  367  f .,  he  ascribes 
the  false  teaching  opposed  in  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  to  Cerinthus. 
In  view  of  the  statement  that  he  came  from  Egypt,  and  of  the  fact 
that  Apollos  in  Alexandria  knew  only  the  baptism  of  John,  he  finds 
a  new  support  for  the  hypothesis  of  a  movement  connected  with 
the  circle  of  John's  disciples,  which  upon  its  external  acceptance 
into  the  Church  in  Asia  did  not  give  up  in  principle  its  peculiar 
«  Zeitachnftf.  d.  N.  T.  Wissenschaft,  1900,  p.  48  flf.;  53  f. 


208    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

opinions.  In  contrast  to  this  construction  which  seeks  to  explain 
the  Baptist  passages  by  some  relation  of  the  false  teachers  with  his 
School  or  with  a  portion  of  it,  it  seems  that  they  are  more  simply 
and  adequately  accounted  for  by  the  perversion  of  the  Gospel 
tradition  concerning  the  Baptist,  by  gnostics  who  could  intrude 
into  the  Church  from  other  directions,  in  order  to  support  their 
doctrines,  and  especially  their  Christology.  While  we  therefore 
find  neither  in  Acts  nor  John  evidence  of  a  direct  controversy  with 
the  School  of  the  Baptist,  we  can  recognize  that  perverted  views 
of  his  relation  to  Jesus  were  a  subordinate  part  of  another  internal 
controversy  which  we  have  still  to  consider. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS 

It  has  been  generally  recognized  that  in  addition  to  the  Judaizing 
attack,  there  are  references  in  the  later  New  Testament  Epistles, 
especially  in  Colossians,  the  Pastorals,  certain  of  the  CathoUc 
Epistles  and  in  the  Revelation,  to  the  existence  and  activity  of  a 
distinct  class  of  errorists.  Their  characterization  has  necessarily 
influenced  New  Testament  criticism,  conceptions  of  the  historical 
movements  of  the  Apostolic  and  of  the  Post-Apostolic  Age,  and 
constructions  of  the  development  of  New  Testament  theology; 
as  well  as  the  exegesis  of  the  large  sections  concerned  with  their 
teachings.  The  need  therefore  is  evident  of  the  attempts  to  dis- 
tinguish, so  far  as  our  data  permit,  this  movement  and  the  con- 
troversy growing  out  of  it. 

The  Tubingen  School  found  such  intimate  relation  between  the 
New  Testament  references  to  these  errorists  and  the  second- 
century  gnosticism,  that  it  concluded  that  the  New  Testament 
Epistles  containing  them  must  be  productions  of  the  second  cen- 
tury. And  because  of  the  literary  relation  of  such  Epistles  with 
several  other  New  Testament  books,  these  too  were  involved 
in  this  late  dating  and  therefore  in  the  denial  of  genuineness. 
Such  denials  were  of  course  combined  with  other  lines  of  critical 
attack.  The  obvious  methods  of  meeting  this  assertion  of  second- 
century  origin  were  first,  to  deny  where  possible  the  gnostic  char- 
acter of  the  false  teachings.  Thus  the  Roman  Catholic  scholars 
Rohr  and  Wurm  still  maintain  the  view  that  not  only  in  I  Cor. 
but  also  in  I  John,  we  have  references  simply  to  Judaizing  per- 
versions. More  frequently  the  references  to  false  teaching  are 
regarded  as  pointing  merely  to  gnosticism  in  its  incipiency,  and  as 
confined  to  I  John,  near  the  close  of  the  first  century.  And  in  the 
case  of  Epistles  traditionally  assigned  to  a  generation  earlier,  the 
references  were  explained  as  due  to  local  influences,  as  in  the 
Colossian  heresy;  or  to  an  Alexandrian  influence,  often  referred  to 


210    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

ApoUos  as  its  initiator;  or  in  some  cases  the  allusions  to  erroneous 
teachings  were  viewed  as  later  interpolations.^ 

But  increasing  agreement  as  to  the  results  of  studies  in  late 
Judaism  on  one  hand,  and  in  second-century  gnosticism  on  the 
other  hand,  and  of  the  connection  of  both  with  the  history  of 
Oriental  and  of  Grseco-Roman  religions,  has  made  possible  a  new 
construction  of  the  New  Testament  references  to  the  presence  and 
teachings  of  a  class  of  opponents  distinct  from  the  Judaizers.  It 
is  indicated  in  the  now  familiar  phrase  of  Pre-Christian  Gnosti- 
cism. Thus  the  possible  allusions  in  the  New  Testament  to 
gnostic  Unes  of  thought,  cease  to  be  in  themselves  proofs  of  second- 
century  composition.  The  usual  phrases,  pre-gnostic,  incipient 
gnostic,  semi-gnostic  features  in  the  New  Testament,  have  now  to 
be  understood  not  as  the  earliest  references  to  gnosticism  in  general, 
but  to  the  early  stages  of  the  special  gnosticism  of  the  second 
Christian  century. 

The  prominence  and  importance  of  the  New  Testament  treat- 
ment of  this  false  teaching  which  was  distinct  from  Judaizing 
opposition  and  was  in  some  relation  to  gnostic  systems,  was  al- 
ready recognized  before  the  period  of  modem  New  Testament 
criticism  and  of  the  study  of  the  History  of  ReUgions.  In  the 
seventeenth  century  Hammond  had  advocated  the  view  of  con- 
tinuous allusion  to  gnostics  in  the  Epistles,  both  in  his  Annotations 
and  in  a  special  treatise.^  Edward  Burton's  Bampton  Lectures, 
1829,  The  Heresies  of  the  Apostolic  Age,  contain  in  the  appended 
volume  of  notes  constant  references  to  the  literature  up  to  his 
time,  in  which  the  relation  of  gnosticism  to  New  Testament 
teachings  is  discussed.  Lutterbeck,  Die  Neutestamentlichen 
Lehrhegriffe,  1852,  has  in  several  points  anticipated  more  recent 
views  as  to  the  early  emergence  and  prominence  of  a  Jewish 
gnostic  movement  intruding  into  Christianity,  cp.  I,  268  ff.,  445; 
II,  3-78.  But  his  theories  failed  to  win  acceptance  or  detailed  dis- 
cussion, owing  to  their  basis  on  premature  generalizations  and  on 
arbitrary  schemes  of  the  origin  and  development  of  gnosis  in  the 

1  So  Pfleiderer,  Urchriatm.,  L231,  follows  Schmiedel  and  Brtickner  in  regard 
to  Philippians,  2,  6  ff. 

»  H.  Hammond,  Works,  1684,  Vol.  II  and  Vol.  IV,  pp.  713  ff.,  De  Anti- 
christo,  de  Mysterio  iniquitatis,  de  Diotrephe  et  iv  irapbht^  de  gnosticis  sub 
Apostolorum  sevo  prodeuntibua. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  211 

ApostoKc  Age.  Since  then  there  have  been  numerous  special 
studies  on  the  errorists  referred  to  in  separate  New  Testament 
writings.  They  have  not,  however,  been  generally  interested  in 
tracing  the  possible  connections  of  the  false  teachings  as  phases  of 
development  of  one  or  more  opposing  movements.  In  many  cases, 
moreover,  they  have  been  controlled  by  the  tendency  to  view  them 
as  forms  or  outgrowths  of  the  Judaistic  controversy  alone.  And 
their  conclusions  have  also  often  been  influenced  by  critical  pre- 
suppositions as  to  the  date  and  authorship  of  the  writings  in  which 
they  occur.  The  well-known  works  on  the  ApostoHc  Age  and  on 
New  Testament  Theology  have  of  course  proceeded  more  con- 
structively. The  most  recent  work,  and  indeed  presented  as  pre- 
paratory studies  to  a  work  on  the  Apostolic  Age,  is  W.  Ltitgert's 
series  of  monographs  covering  already  nine  Pauline  Epistles  and 
I  John.^  In  these  he  maintains,  and  we  hold  successfully,  that 
from  the  beginning  the  Christian  Church  faced  opponents  on  two 
fronts:  Judaizers  and  perverters  of  Christian  freedom. 

Further  progress  may  be  expected  along  the  lines  of  contem- 
porary studies  in  the  History  of  Religions,  and  especially  from  the 
results  of  investigation  of  the  contemporary  and  pre-Christian 
Jewish  mysticism.  For  it  is  more  and  more  clearly  recognized  that 
there  were  besides  Pharisaism  with  consequent  emergence  of  the 
Judaistic  controversy,  speculative  movements  among  the  Jews,  and 
in  particular  among  those  in  the  Dispersion.  On  the  other  hand, 
recent  research  in  second-century  gnosticism  and  its  origins,  make 
possible  more  exact  comparisons  and  conclusions  regarding  the 
character  and  development  of  gnostic  tendencies  and  influences  in 
the  New  Testament  writings.  Similarly  the  advancing  studies  of 
the  contemporary  Graeco-Roman  syncretistic  cults,  open  up 
questions  of  the  possible  relations  between  them  and  special  topics 
of  New  Testament  teaching. 

The  characteristic  features  of  second-century  gnosticism  are 
presented  in  all  the  encyclopedias,  church  histories  and  histories  of 
dogma,  with  references  to  the  special  treatises  on  the  system,  its 
origin,  sources  and  structure,  and  to  monographs  on  its  various 

'  Freiheitspredigt  u.  Schwarmgeister  in  Korinth:  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Charak- 
,  teristik  der  Christuspartei,  1908;  Die  Irrlehrer  der  PasUrralbriefe,  1909;  Die 
VoUkommenen  in  Philipperbrief  u.  die  Enthusiasten  in  ThessdUmich,  1909; 
^       Ami  u.  Geist  in  Kampf,  1911;  Der  Rdmerbrief  als  historisches  Problem,  1915. 


212    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

sects.  For  the  purpose  of  keeping  in  view  the  possibilities  of 
correspondence  between  it  and  the  teaching  of  New  Testament 
errorists  now  to  be  examined,  we  may  here  refer  to  its  outstanding 
features  as  sketched  in  the  summaries  of  Kohler  and  Hamack.^ 
Gnosis  is  revealed  knowledge  of  salvation  by  means  of  emancipa- 
tion of  the  human  spirit  from  matter  and  by  its  conquest  of  the 
cosmic  powers  in  its  ascent  to  the  pleroma,  the  perfection  of  the 
Godhead.  Such  means  and  certainty  of  salvation  are  secured  by 
cultic  actions  in  the  mysteries  and  initiations.  The  system  in- 
cludes a  cosmology,  a  drama  of  the  world's  origin,  resting  on  a 
theory  of  metaphysical  duaUsm  in  which  God  is  pure  Spirit,  and 
matter  an  independent  principle  inherently  evil.  The  necessary 
relations  between  God  and  creation  are  mediated  by  a  theory  of 
emanations.  Creation  itself  is  the  work  of  a  subordinate  demiurge. 
On  the  same  duaUstic  principle  the  Redeemer  is  divided  into  the 
heavenly  aeon  Christ  and  his  human  appearance  in  Jesus.  Since 
the  Christ  is  incapable  of  suffering,  he  is  only  related  to  Jesus  by 
some  docetic  method ;  and  his  redemption  can  have  no  connection 
with  an  atoning  death  on  the  Cross.  *  Christ  redeems  because  he 
has  shown  the  way,  and  has  overcome  the  demons.'  Christian 
eschatology  is  necessarily  also  rejected.  In  ethics  on  the  dualistic 
basis,  gnostic  systems  developed  either  in  the  direction  of  ascet- 
icism or  libertinism.  The  Old  Testament  was  by  some  rejected 
radically ;  by  others  it  was  utilized  in  selections.  New  Testament 
writings  were  adapted  to  gnostic  speculation  by  means  of  allegory, 
and  supplemented  by  alleged  secret  tradition.  The  Church  was 
converted  'into  the  college  of  the  pneumatic,  alone  capable  of 
gnosis  and  the  divine  life,  while  the  others  as  the  hylic,  perish'; 
though  the  Valentinians  and  some  others  recognized  a  middle 
class  of  the  psychic  '  capable  of  a  certain  blessedness  and  knowledge 
of  the  supersensible,  through  Christian  faith. ' 

It  is  not,  however,  our  purpose  to  attempt  the  construction  of  a 

*W.  Kehler,  Rges.  Vbuch.  IV,  6,  1911:  Die  Gnosis,  p.  19  flf.  Hamack, 
History  of  Dogma,  I,  p.  252  flF.:  The  most  important  gnostic  doctrines.  W. 
Bousset,  Hauptprobleme  der  Gnosis,  1907,  discusses  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  the  gnostic  systems,  pp.  319-328.  W.  Anz,  1897,  had  already  maintained 
in  Texte  u.  UrUersuchungen,  XV,  4,  that  the  central  doctrine  uniting  the 
many  disparate  elements  of  gnosticism,  was  salvation  by  the  ascent  of  the 
soul  from  the  tyranny  of  the  world-powers  to  the  supreme  God  and  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  freedom  of  the  pleroma. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  213 

theory  of  the  gnostic  element  in  the  New  Testament  by  the  method 
of  paralleUng  the  correspondences  between  it  and  the  gnostic 
systems  of  the  next  century.  We  shall  restrict  our  discussion  in  the 
following  chapters  to  an  investigation  of  the  earUest  New  Testa- 
ment data  as  to  the  nature  of  an  opposing  teaching  of  a  gnostic 
character.  If  we  can  thus  reach  definite  results  regarding  its  con- 
tents, spirit  and  tendencies,  we  can  more  clearly  determine  what 
conditions  of  reUgious  thought  seem  to  be  postulated  for  its 
emergence,  and  what  historical  development  might  logically  be  ex- 
pected. A  comparison  of  results  with  the  increasingly  recognized 
results  of  the  study  of  religious  thought  before,  during  and  after  the 
ApostoUc  Age,  will  of  course  remain  as  a  necessary  check  upon  our 
conclusions  as  to  this  New  Testament  polemic  against  a  false 
teaching  distinct  from  the  Judaizing  movement. 

1.   THE   THESSALONIAN   EPISTLES 

Turning  therefore  to  the  first  group  of  the  PauUne  Epistles,  we 
find  no  reference  to  such  a  movement  in  Galatians,  which  on  the 
South  Galatian  theory  can  be  regarded  as  the  earhest  of  the 
Apostle's  extant  Letters.  In  the  Thessalonians,  however,  written 
from  Corinth  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  decade,  we  meet  with  a 
definite  polemic  against  a  special  perversion  of  the  PauHne  teach- 
ing. Almost  always  this  controversial  element  is  viewed  as  due  to 
attack  upon  the  Apostle  by  unbeheving  Jews.  Such  attack  would 
naturally  consist  of  denial  of  the  original  propaganda  preaching 
that  Jesus  is  Messiah.  Yet  there  is  in  the  Epistle  no  reaffirmation 
of  the  original  apologetic  from  prophecy,  the  witness  of  Jesus' 
life,  words  and  deeds,  his  resurrection  and  the  believers'  gift  of  the 
Spirit.  On  the  contrary  his  only  reference  to  the  Jews,  I  Thess. 
2,  14  ff.,  is  in  regard  to  their  persecution  of  his  converts  for  their 
stedfastness  in  the  faith  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ.  In  reference  to 
this  tribulation,  the  first  Epistle  is  a  stimulation  of  the  patience 
inspired  by  the  Christian  hope  of  glory  at  the  Parousia  of  Christ. 

But  there  is  much  more  in  these  Epistles  which  points  beyond 
persecution  by  the  Jews;  or  in  Moffatt's  view  by  pagans  under 
Jewish  instigation.  Lipsius,  Stud.  u.  Krit.  1854,  905  ff.,  cited  by 
Moffatt,  therefore  proposed  the  theory  of  a  defense  against  a 
Judaizing  attack.  Yet  again  it  is  difficult  to  detect  any  reference 
to  such  a  Judaizing  opposition.    For  we  find  no  allusions  to  the 


214    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

matters  around  which  this  controversy  centered:  circumcision, 
legalism,  Sabbath,  privileges  of  Israel  and  universalism.  The 
sunamary  of  salvation,  II  Thess.  2,  13  f.,  is  not  framed  to  meet  a 
Judaistic  perversion.  Salvation,  in  this  statement,  is  'in  consecra- 
tion of  the  Spirit  and  faith  in  the  truth. '  This  is  a  view  in  which 
every  Judaizer  would  share.  And  if,  as  may  be,  a  special  formula- 
tion is  here  designed  against  an  opposing  view  of  salvation,  it  is  not 
against  the  Judaizing  view. 

There  remains  the  supposition  that  the  references  to  oppositions 
are  to  the  teachings  of  some  party  or  group  within  the  Church  who 
are  distinct  from  the  Judaizers.  It  is  not  yet  clear  from  these 
Epistles  whether  they  are  converts  from  heathenism  or  Judaism. 
The  references  to  them  are  moreover  not  direct.  We  must  recon- 
struct their  position  from  allusions  and  from  significant  renewed 
emphasis  on  Apostolic  teaching  which  is  minimized,  perverted  or 
rejected.  Some  clues  to  the  character  of  the  opposition  may  first 
be  sought  in  the  designedly  vague  personal  allusions. 

Writing  from  Corinth  he  asks  the  prayers  of  the  readers  for  his 
deliverance  from  *the  definite  body  or  class,'  Findlay  in  loc.f 
*  of  absurd,  or  eccentric  or  perverse  and  wicked  men ' :  tuv  aTdircav 
Kal  iroprjpuv  kyBposirdsVy  II  Thess.  3,  2.  EUicott  admits:  'who  these 
men  were  is  somewhat  doubtful.'  They  are,  however,  not  the 
heathen,  since  nothing  is  known  of  opposition  to  the  Gospel  or  of 
danger  to  the  Apostle  from  the  Corinthians,  cp.  Acts  18,  10.  Nor 
are  they,  as  in  the  usual  view,  unbelieving  Jews;  else  he  could  be 
expected  to  name  them  as  such,  as  he  does  when  speaking  of  their 
persecution  of  the  Thessalonians  I,  2,  14,  and  of  the  persecution  by 
them  which  he  anticipates  in  Jerusalem:  'those  who  are  dis- 
obedient in  Judea, '  Rom.  15,  31.  He  would  not  moreover  describe 
as  'absurd  and  irrational,'  the  Jews  to  whom  he  presented  in  the 
synagogues  his  elaborated  arguments  from  Old  Testament  proph- 
ecy, and  to  whose  objections  against  Christianity  he  offered  with 
most  solemn  protestations  of  devotion  to  his  nation,  his  pro- 
found est  teachings  in  Rom.  9-11.  Neither  could  his  opponents  in 
Corinth  be  Judaizing  Christians,  for  the  same  reasons:  he  could  not 
have  called  either  their  attack  a  Jewish  attack,  which  was  clear- 
sighted and  based  on  deep  conviction,  as  being  against  all  reason. 
Further,  his  added  remark  'faith  does  not  pertain  to  all  men,' 
could  not  refer  to  pagans  or  Jews,  since  it  would  be  pointless  to 


I 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  215 

assure  his  readers  that  these  classes  had  not  accepted  the  Christian 
faith.  Nor  could  the  threefold  description  of  the  opponents  apply 
to  Judaizing  Christians.  They  could  indeed  be  called  by  Paul  as 
in  Gal.  2,  4,  false  brethren;  yet  with  definite  reference  to  their 
denial  of  the  freedom  which  we  have  in  Christ,  and  not  to  denial  of 
the  faith  professed  by  the  Church  of  Jerusalem,  of  which  they  were 
members.  Even  they,  however,  are  not  treated  in  Galatians  and 
Romans  as  cltottol,  and  are  not  characterized  as  irovrjpoi,  immoral 
men. 

We  conclude,  therefore,  that  the  reference  may  most  naturally 
point  to  a  group  of  men  within  the  Church  whose  claim  to  be 
believers  Paul  repudiates,  and  whose  immoral  behavior  based  on 
principles  contrary  to  all  reason,  is  hindering  the  progress  and 
success  of  the  Gospel.  These,  it  may  also  be  noticed,  are  promi- 
nent features  in  the  later  description  of  the  false  teachers  in  the 
Pastorals.  There,  the  men  who  within  the  Church  withstand  the 
truth  are  reprobate  concerning  the  faith;  are  corrupted  in  mind 
and  without  understanding;  evil  men,  irovrjpol  and  impostors, 
yorjres;  and  as  such  are  contrasted  with  those  that  would  live 
godly  in  Christ  Jesus,  II  Tim.  3,  8-13. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  relation  of  the  Corinthian  op- 
ponents to  these  later  errorists,  Paul's  request  for  his  readers* 
prayers  for  his  deliverance  from  them,  assumes  their  understanding 
of  his  reference.  We  next  inquire  whether  the  Thessalonians 
themselves  have  acquaintance  with,  and  experience  of  such  a 
class.  In  answer  we  find  in  the  first  half  of  the  second  chapter  of 
the  First  Epistle,  Paul's  reiterated  denials  concerning  the  char- 
acter of  his  own  preaching  to  the  readers.  It  is  almost  constantly 
understood  to  be  a  repudiation  of  charges  made  against  him  by 
the  Jews  in  Thessalonica  or  by  the  heathen  at  their  prompting. 
But  we  must  observe  that  this  is  not  the  characteristic  and  con- 
stant form  of  Jewish  attack.  They  did  not  concern  themselves 
with  the  innuendoes  in  this  chapter  in  regard  to  Paul's  apostolic 
authority,  theological  conceptions,  rhetorical  methods,  pastoral 
relations,  personal  purity,  petty  mercenary  aims.  Theirs,  in 
Judea,  Thessalonica  and  always  was  open  war  upon  him  to  the 
death  as  an  apostate  attempting  to  destroy  the  faith  and  customs 
of  Israel;  and  this,  under  domination  of  their  special  hatred  of  his 
Gospel  to  the  Gentiles.    And  the  same  direct  methods  of  attack 


216    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

were  used  by  Judaizing  Christians.  The  charges  in  this  chapter 
are  most  intelligible  when  viewed  not  as  the  occasion  of  apology 
but  as  Paul's  polemic  against  false  teachers  who  have  intruded 
into  the  Church  of  Thessalonica,  whose  preaching  and  methods 
he  denounces  in  contrasting  them  with  his  own.  Their  exhorta- 
tion issues  from  error  and  impurity  and  is  by  means  of  guile.  They 
are  flatterers  and  fawners,  seeking  glory  from  men;  and  through 
covetousness  they  demand  financial  support  from  their  hearers. 
These  are  precisely  the  methods  and  motives  ascribed  to  the 
gnosticizing  false  teachers  in  the  later  Epistles.  So  similar,  in- 
deed, is  the  description  of  the  opponents,  as  we  have  imderstood 
the  section,  to  that  of  those  in  Corinth,  that  Baur,  Paul,  II,  86, 
and  III  Appendix  315  ff.,  uses  as  an  argument  against  the  gen- 
uineness of  I  Thess.  the  claim  that  2,  4  ff .  '  is  a  brief  recapitulation 
of  the  principles  enunciated  in  the  Corinthian  Epistles';  and  p. 
317,  is  'an  echo  of  the  last  two  chapters  of  II  Cor.'  ° 

Who  these  errorists  were  may  be  known  more  definitely  from 
the  special  topics,  interests  and  emphases  in  the  two  Epistles. 
The  outstanding  topic  and  interest  is  eschatology.  Every  section 
of  the  First  Epistle  reaches  its  climax  in  a  reference  to  the  Second 
Advent.  Other  doctrines,  redemptive  facts  and  ethical  exhorta- 
tions are  expressed  in  their  relation  to  the  Last  Things.  One  com- 
plete section,  4,  13  ff.,  is  a  brief  apocalypse  concerning  the  state 
of  the  Christian  dead  and  their  share  in  the  Parousia;  and  it  is 
followed  by  a  section  of  restatement  concerning  the  times  and 
seasons  of  Christ's  coming.  The  first  two  of  the  three  chapters  of 
II  Thess.  are  exclusively  eschatological.  This  unusual  proportion 
of  emphasis  is  not  due,  as  has  often  been  asserted,  to  an  early 
interest  of  the  Apostle  in  matters  eschatological,  which  he  out- 
grew in  later  years;  for  the  same  general  conceptions  are  in- 
terwoven in  his  later  Epistles.  Neither  can  the  prominence  of 
the  subject  be  due  to  the  readers'  ignorance.  He  states  that  he 
has  no  need  to  write  of  the  times  and  seasons;  that  they  know 
accurately  that  the  Day  of  the  Lord  comes  as  a  thief  in  the  night. 
He  can  appeal  to  their  knowledge  of  his  original  teaching  con- 
cerning that  Day,  and  in  detail,  concerning  the  Apostasy,  the 

» This  and  the  recent  views  of  the  Thessalonian  opponents  are  discussed  by 
Lutgert,  whose  own  view  has  here  been  followed,  in  LHe  VoUkommenen  im 
Philipperbrief  u.  die  EnUxusiasten  in  Thessalonich,  p.  65  S. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  217 

Man  of  Sin  and  his  Restrainer.  Nor  does  the  constant  tone  of 
confident  reference  to  the  subject,  suggest  any  tendency  of  the 
readers  to  deny  it. 

We  are  thus  at  a  loss  for  an  explanation  of  his  emphasis  on  the 
Last  Things,  until  we  learn  in  the  Second  Epistle,  2,  2  ff.,  that 
under  the  pretext  of  Paul's  teaching  or  of  its  issues,  his  opponents 
are  asserting  that  the  Day  of  the  Lord  is  'already  present,*  iviart}- 
K€v,^  not  merely  'at  hand'  or  '  just  at  hand.'  It  is  the  same  posi- 
tion as  held  by  some  in  Corinth  who  say  there  is  no  resurrection 
of  the  dead;  and  later  by  those  in  Ephesus  who  say  the  resurrection 
has  taken  place  already,  rfSyj  yeyovevai,,  II  Tim.  2, 18.  For  such, 
the  only  meaning  of  resurrection  was  the  spiritual  resurrection  in 
baptism.  At  their  own  baptism  they  must  have  made  a  profession 
of  faith  in  Christ's  resurrection,  I  Cor.  15,  1-8;  but  in  Thessalonica 
as  in  Corinth,  their  assertion  that  the  Day  of  the  Lord  was  already 
present  involved  a  denial  of  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ  and  the 
gathering  together  unto  him  of  living  saints  and  dead  at  the  gen- 
eral resurrection,  II  Thess.  2,  1;  I  Thess.  4,  13-18.  That  this 
denial  of  the  resurrection  in  a  glorified  body  rests  as  in  I  Cor.  15, 
35,  on  a  gnostic  dualism  of  spirit  and  inherently  evil  created  matter, 
may  possibly  be  already  indicated  in  the  unusual  concluding 
prayer,  I  Thess.  5,  23,  that  their  spirit  and  soul  and  body  may  be 
preserved  entire  at  the  coming  of  Christ;  for  the  relation  of  the 
body  with  soul  and  spirit  at  the  Parousia,  is  the  subject  developed 
in  I  Cor.  15,  35  ff.,  in  reply  to  the  deniers  of  the  resurrection  in 
vs.  12  and  to  their  challenge,  vs.  35,  concerning  a  resurrection  body. 

Another  brief  statement  suggests  that  the  false  teaching  is 
based  positively  on  the  claim  of  spiritual  gifts  of  prophecy,  which 
in  I  Cor.  includes  the  gifts  of  wisdom,  gnosis   and   revelation. 

« See  Zahn,  Introd.,  §  37  n.  17,  for  the  view  in  Acta  Theclae,  14,  that  'the 
resurrection  has  already  taken  place'  means  'in  the  children  we  have,'  and 
also  for  the  views  by  later  gnostics  of  the  resurrection  as  spiritual  by  means 
of  epignosis  of  God  or  of  the  truth,  in  conversion  and  baptism;  and  for  its 
relation  to  'resurrection  of  the  flesh,'  his  Apostles'  Creed,  p.  204.  Cp.  also 
Hamack,  Hist  of  Dogma,  p.  261,  n.  1.  The  suggestion  that  Ox.  Pap.  1187, 
line  17,  TOV  XP<>^ov  evaravTOS  as  referring  to  the  approaching  year  may  sup- 
port the  translation  of  eve<TT7)Kev  by  'is  imminent,'  conflicts  with  the  fact  that 
while  the  aor.  ptcp.  can  refer  to  the  future,  the  perfect  tense  expresses  a  present 
result  of  a  past  action;  as  too  in  Ox.  Pap.,  275,  line,  10,  tt]S  ev€(TT(i)(Trjs 
iifxepas  means  'this  day.' 


218    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

The  Thessalonians  are  enjoined,  I  Thess.  5,  19  ff.,  not  to  quench 
the  Spirit  and  not  to  despise  prophesyings.  It  is  a  singular  com- 
mand to  be  addressed  to  primitive  Christians.  To  them  prophecy- 
was  one  of  the  highest  gifts  of  the  Spirit;  a  distinguishing  mark 
of  Christianity;  and  one  of  the  strongest  attractions  in  winning 
converts.  The  passage,  therefore,  indicates  that  the  readers  are 
disposed,  in  repudiating  the  intruding  false  teachings  of  those 
boasting  of  their  prophetic  gift,  to  hold  a  decreasing  estimate  of 
this  gift.  The  Apostle's  corrective  is  Ho  prove  and  test  all  things 
and  to  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.'  Similarly  in  connection  with 
the  abuse  of  spiritual  gifts,  I  Cor.  12-14,  he  gives  the  rule:  desire 
earnestly  spiritual  gifts,  but  rather  that  ye  may  prophesy.  Yet 
when  prophets  speak,  the  others  are  to  discriminate,  as  in  Rom. 
12,  6,  whether  they  prophesy  according  to  the  proportion  of  the 
faith. 

It  will  appear  in  later  Epistles  that  the  boast  of  freedom  based 
on  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  coupled  with  gnostic  indifference  to  the 
material  body  and  its  functions,  and  with  the  rejection  of  the 
eschatological  hope  as  the  inspiration  and  invigoration  of  Christian 
morality,  issued  in  an  antinomian  license.  Such  an  influence  may 
be  recognized  as  already  operative  in  Thessalonica,  in  view  of  the 
special  ethical  interests  in  the  hortatory  section  of  the  First 
Epistle,  4,  1  ff.  After  recalling  in  the  opening  verses  the  body  of 
moral  instruction  they  had  received  and  which  they  were  observ- 
ing, he  proceeds  to  select  a  few  definite  topics  for  reiteration. 
We  submit  that  a  satisfactory  reason  for  this  selection  is  offered 
in  the  view  that  these  are  topics  concerning  which  the  opponents 
are  insinuating  false  principles  which  lead  to  unchristian  practice. 
The  first  of  the  three  topics  is  a  renewed  warning  against  impurity 
and  disparagement  of  marriage.  The  occasion  of  this  re-emphasized 
admonition  cannot  be  the  readers'  proneness  to  continue  in  the 
sins  of  their  previous  heathen  life  and  present  environment.  He 
praises  their  Christian  life  and  moral  walk  without  qualification, 
4,  1;  1,  1-10;  3,  6  ff.  It  is,  therefore,  best  accounted  for  as  directed 
against  the  practical  outcome  of  an  antinomian  teaching  of  his 
subtly  intruding  opponents.  At  the  close  in  vs.  8,  their  claim  of 
freedom  from  moral  law  by  reason  of  their  gift  of  the  Spirit,  is 
met  by  his  counterthrust  that  rejection  of  the  law  of  purity  in 
vss.  3-6  is  rejection  not  of  a  man  but  of  God,  who  also  gives  his 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  219 

Holy  Spirit  to  be  within  us  to  enable  us  to  realize  the  holiness 
of  life  of  vs.  7,  cp.  I  Cor.  6,  19;  Rom.  8,  4.  In  insisting  next  in 
vss.  9  and  10  on  brotherly  love,  with  the  acknowledgment  that 
they  already  exercise  it  towards  all  the  brethren  in  all  Macedonia, 
he  can  reasonably  be  understood  as  warning  them  against  an  in- 
truding divisive  and  exclusive  spirit,  which  is  characteristic  of 
gnostic  activity  in  all  the  later  references.  The  remaining  re- 
newal of  the  primitive  moral  instruction  in  vss.  11  and  12  shows 
that  the  claim  of  freedom  from  moral  law  led  naturally  to  con- 
tempt for  all  forms  of  external  authority,  including  the  State. 
Hence  the  need  of  his  counteracting  admonition  directed  against 
teaching  conflicting  with  quietness  and  with  seemly  behavior 
towards  those  outside  the  Church. 

Passing  at  this  point  from  the  topic  of  their  faith  in  the  gospel, 
chaps.  1-3,  and  from  that  of  their  moral  work  of  love,  4,  1  ff.,  to 
their  Christian  hope,  he  next,  4,  13  ff .,  removes  anxiety  concerning 
the  dead  in  Christ  by  his  assurance  of  their  share  in  the  Parousia. 
That  the  aim  in  this  section  is  to  refute  consequences  of  a  denial 
of  a  general  resurrection,  appears  both  from  the  close  parallel 
in  I  Cor.  15,  18-20,  and  also  from  his  reassertion  in  the  succeed- 
ing section,  5,  1-11,  of  the  Apostolic  teaching  concerning  the 
Day  of  the  Lord  to  men  who  know  it  accurately  and  to  whom  he 
has  'no  need  to  write.'  But  as  in  Rom.  15,  14  f.,  he  'puts  them 
again  in  remembrance'  so  as  to  guard  them  against  those  who 
like  lying  prophets  in  the  Old  Testament  reject  warnings  in  re- 
gard to  that  Day,  'saying  peace  and  safety';  and  to  exhort  them 
with  the  inspiration  of  the  hope  of  glory  to  a  life  of  Christian 
duty,  which  is  imperilled  by  the  principles  of  the  deniers  of  the 
resurrection  as  in  I  Cor.  15,  34. 

In  thus  denying  a  general  resurrection  and  the  obligation  of 
Christian  morality  on  the  ground  of  their  emancipating  spiritual 
gift  of  gnosis,  the  errorists  would  be  also  inevitably  led  to  deny 
the  authority  of  the  Church's  original  teaching,  and  equally  the 
authority  of  its  ministry  of  teaching,  worship  and  discipline. 
Hence  in  the  concluding  section  concerning  Church  fellowship, 
5,  12  ff.,  we  recognize  in  the  unusually  definite  exhortation  to  a 
recognition  of  the  clergy  and  to  esteem  them  exceedingly  highly 
in  love,  a  reference  to  some  influence  tending  to  the  disparagement 
of  the  official  ministry.    This  can  be  most  readily  accounted  for 


220    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

as  coming  from  intruders  boasting  of  their  own  completer  ministry 
and  charismatic  gift  of  prophecy.  In  vss.  19-22  as  in  I  Cor.  12-14 
and  Rom.  12,  6,  this  prophetic  ministry  is  fully  recognized.  Yet 
false  prophecy  is  guarded  against  by  the  criterion  of  vs.  21  and 
parallels:  to  test  all  things;  to  hold  fast  to  the  good,  to  abstain 
from  every  form  of  evil.  It  is  illustrated  by  the  later  rule  in  I  John 
4,  1  ff.:  Believe  not  every  spirit,  but  prove  the  spirits,  whether 
they  are  of  God  ...  he  that  is  not  of  God  heareth  us  not.  A 
general  application  of  this  rule  which  closes  our  section,  vss.  12-22, 
is  already  directed  in  the  first  injunction  to  the  clergy  in  vs.  14 
to  'admonish  the  disorderly,'  araKrot;  and  the  last  third  of  the 
Second  Epistle  contains  Paul's  own  special  charge  in  reference  to 
them.  They  seem  thus  to  be  a  distinct  class.  We  shall  attempt 
a  construction  of  their  characteristics  and  relations  to  other  in- 
terests of  the  two  Epistles,  which  may  serve  further  *to  indicate 
and  to  unify  the  several  features  of  the  opposing  teaching. 

The  term  araKTOi,  which  is  found  in  these  Epistles  only,  connotes 
far  more  than  men  of  unbecoming  behavior,  as  imphed  by  '  disor- 
derly' of  our  English  versions.  As  it  occurs  in  the  section  concern- 
ing Church  fellowship  exhorting  to  recognition  of  the  local  ministry 
and  to  their  exercise  of  the  duty  of  admonishing  the  ara/crot,  the 
general  idea  of  their  'insubordination'  is  impUed.  This  is  sup- 
ported by  Paul's  reference  to  the  class  in  II  Thess.  3, 14:  if  any  obey 
not  our  word  by  this  Epistle.  The  harm  is  evidently  related  to  the 
familiar  Pauline  expressions  concerning  rctf  t$,  order.  This  rajis 
in  the  Church,  I  Cor.  14,  40;  Col.  2,  5,  is  on  the  one  hand  based  on 
the  ordinance,  SLaT&aaeadaL,  of  the  Apostle  in  all  his  churches, 
I  Cor.  7,  17;  11,  34;  and  rests  ultimately  on  the  ^TLTayrj  of  the 
Lord,  cp.  also  I  Cor.  14,  37;  and  on  the  other  hand  it  is  exhibited  in 
the  correlative  submission,  viroT&aaeadai,  and  obedience,  viraKori, 
of  his  converts.  The  fundamental  obedience  is  to  God  as  is  seen 
in  the  use  of  &T€t,deLv  in  Rom.  11,  30,  etc.;  in  contrast  to  previous 
failure  to  be  subject  to  His  law  and  righteousness.  From  other 
viewpoints  it  is  an  obedience  to  Christ,  II  Cor.  10,  6;  of  faith;  to  the 
gospel;  to  the  form  of  bidaxv  delivered;  and  then,  I  Cor.  16,  15-17, 
the  submission  to  those  who  have  set  themselves  to  minister  to  the 
saints,  and  to  every  one  that  helpeth  in  the  work  and  laboreth; 
and  the  obedience  to  Paul,  Philippians  2, 12;  II  Cor.  2,  9;  Philemon 
9.21 ;  or  to  Titus,  II  Cor.  7, 15.    We  therefore  consider  that  UraKToi 


|THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  221 

like  the  equivalent  term  avviroTaKToi  in  Tit.  1,  10,  refers  to  in- 
subordination and  rejection  of  the  Church  order,  its  Apostolic 
tradition  of  faith,  morals  and  hope,  its  ministry  and  discipline; 
and  further  that  this  is  the  unifying  term  for  the  introducers  and 
adherents  of  the  false  teachings  which  are  the  occasion  of  the 
Epistles  to  Thessalonica. 

In  both,  the  references  to  them  are  made  in  close  connection 
with  the  renewed  assertions  of  the  Parousia.    Their  first  mention 
immediately  follows  the  eschatological  section,  I  Thess  4, 13-5, 11. 
In  II  Thess.  the  charge  against  them  alone,  3,  6-16,  is  only  sepa- 
rated from  his  still  more  definite  teaching  concerning  the  Day  of 
the  Lord,  by  his  prayer  for  deUverance  from  the  related  arowoi 
Kal  TTOvrjpol  of  Corinth.    Besides  this  association  with  denials  of 
the  Advent,  these  insubordinate  men,  II  Thess  3,  6,  walk  not 
according  to  the  tradition  of  moral  teaching.    His  reference  would 
naturally  be  to  the  special  topics  from  it  which  he  had  re-empha- 
sized in  the  earUer  Epistle:  impurity,  divisive  spirit  and  disregard, 
probably  in  some  form  of  spiritual  excitement,  of  external  authority 
and  customs.     He  had  also  then  repeated  from  the  primitive 
Didache  the  rule  of  self-support.    This  he  renews  in  II  Thess  3, 
7-12,  against  the  insubordinate  of  vs.  6,  pointing  out  his  own  sub- 
mission to  the  tradition:  ovk  rjTaKTrjaanev  ev  vfuv,  although  he 
had  authority  to  be  supported,  as  being  an  Apostle  of  Christ.    The 
reference  to  this  right  of  apostle,  prophet  and  evangelist,  as  were 
the  writers,  to  support,  cp.  also  I  Thess  2,  7-9,  is  an  intimation 
that  the  insubordinate  claimed  a  similar  authority  on  the  basis  of 
their  spiritual  gifts,  and  exercised  it  in  a  demand  for  support  by 
the  Church;  as  we  know  this  was  claimed  by  the  false  apostles  in 
II  Cor.  11  and  12.    Along,  moreover,  with  their  rejection  of  the 
conmiand  to  work,  they  became  irepupya^bfxevoi,:  not  mere  idlers 
and  gossipers,  but  in   contrast  to  irpaaativ  ra  tSta,  I  Thess. 
4,  11,  they  are  meddlers,  intruders,  upsetters  of  households.    The 
term  reminds  us  of  the  later  errorists  who  in  II  Tim.  3,  6,  creep 
into  houses  and  take  captive  silly  women,  who  in  turn,  1  Tim.  5, 13, 
learn  to  be  idle,  going  about  from  house  to  house;  irepUpyoiy 
speaking  to.  jxif  Seovra:  things  improper  or  forbidden.    Men  with 
such  principles,  spirit  and  practices  were  not  likely  to  recognize 
lovingly  the  local  clergy;  nor  in  their  insubordination  to  listen  to 
pastoral  admonition.     Hence  the  Apostles'  discipline  of  them: 


222    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

withdraw  yourselves  from  every  brother  walking  cltclktcos;  his  own 
apostolic  charge  and  solemn  exhortation  to  'such,  that  working  with 
quietness  they  eat  their  own  bread ' ;  and  if  any  refuse  obedience 
to  this  apostolic  command,  the  Church  is  to  'note'  him  and  not 
associate  with  him,  though  not  regarding  him  as  an  enemy,  but 
admonishing  him  as  a  brother. 

The  length  and  solenmity  of  this  apostoUc  charge  to  the  local 
Church,  shows  of  itself  that  it  is  not  directed  merely  against  idleness 
which  any  Church  praised  by  Paul,  or  which  any  civic  community 
was  perfectly  competent  to  discipline  and  suppress.  The  claim  for 
Church  support  correlates  itself  therefore  with  the  other  traits; 
and  in  its  connection  with  them  enables  us  to  recognize  in  the 
insubordinate  the  wily  intruders  with  whom  Paul  contrasts  him- 
self in  I  Thess.  2,  and  the  adherents  of  their  subtle  and  masked 
propaganda  which  in  II  Thess.  2,  2,  is  already  using,  like  the  later 
gnostics,  the  artifice  of  forged  apostolic  documents.  That  the 
several  traits  we  have  combined  could  be  thus  united  in  the  error- 
ists  at  Thessalonica  is  directly  illustrated.  Tit.  1,  9-16,  in  the 
delineation  of  gnosticizing  teachers.  Their  first  and  controlling 
feature  is  that  they  are  dj'uir6raKrot,  parallel  to  the  draKrot  as 
regards  Church  fellowship.  As  to  doctrine  they  utter  senseless 
things  and  are  deceived  in  their  minds,  which  recalls  the  earlier 
aToiroi..  Their  teachings  are  insinuated  by  the  method  of  the 
Trepupya^6iJL€voL:  they  overturn  whole  households;  and  like  them 
they  claim  financial  support  for  their  immoral  teachings.  As  we 
saw  in  I  Thess.  4,  8,  a  probable  allusion  to  a  claim  of  emancipating 
gnosis  in  the  possession  of  the  Spirit,  so  here  the  errorists  *  profess  to 
know  God,  but  deny  him  in  their  works,'  as  in  the  passage  in  I 
Thess.  they  reject  God.  And  as  in  II  Thess.  3, 2,  faith  does  not  per- 
tain to  the  droTTot  Kal  Tovripol,  so  are  the  errorists  here  dTriarot 
and  unto  every  good  work  reprobate.  And  here  too  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  clergy  to  confute  them  and  close  their  mouths,  as  in  Thes- 
salonica the  clergy  were  to  test,  to  admonish,  to  withdraw  from,  to 
note  and  to  have  no  association  with  the  intruding  insubordinate 
errorists. 

This  construction,  in  which  the  view  of  Ltitgert  is  adopted,  is, 
however,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  exegetical  tradition  maintained 
in  all  the  recent  commentaries  and  works  on  the  Apostohc  Age. 
In  these,  the  insubordinate  are  a  group,  often  viewed  as  repre- 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  223 

senting  a  general  tendency  of  the  Church,  which  was  morbidly 
excited  by  expectation  of  the  imminence  of  the  Advent  and  thereby 
was  led  to  neglect  of  their  earthly  occupations.  The  consequent 
need  and  the  claim  to  support,  and  their  failure  to  receive  it,  led 
next  to  a  spirit  of  insubordination  and  to  general  disorder,  which  is 
paralleled  in  historical  instances  of  similar  fanaticism  caused  by 
expectations  of  an  immediate  Advent.  This  current  conception 
rests  upon  the  assumptions  that  the  report,  'the  Day  of  the  Lord  is 
present'  refers  to  an  announcement  of  its  inomediate  coming;  that 
this  announcement  would  lead  to  fanatical  excitement;  and  that 
this  would  express  itself  in  idleness  and  in  the  disorders  naturally 
resulting  from  it. 

We  have  already  stated,  as  against  the  initial  assumption,  that 
the  Thessalonians'  troubles  were  occasioned  not  by  rumors  con- 
cerning an  impending  Parousia  and  the  Last  Things  connected 
with  it,  but  by  a  denial  based  on  ultra-spiritualizing  of  the  primi- 
tive eschatology,  that  such  a  Parousia  would  ever  occur.  Against 
this  denial  in  Corinth  and  Ephesus,  II  Tim.  2, 18,  we  have  Paul's 
reassertion  of  the  Advent  hope  not  only  in  I  Cor.  15,  but  through- 
out the  Thessalonian  Epistles,  and  most  definitely  indeed  in  the 
chapters  immediately  preceding  and  following  the  report  that  the 
Day  of  the  Lord  is  already  present,  without  its  eschatological 
accompaniments.  But  even  on  the  contrary  assumption,  it  is 
by  no  means  evident  that  the  announcement  of  an  immediate 
Advent  would  lead  to  fanatical  excitement  of  the  disciples.  Find- 
lay,  Thess.,  p.  xliv,  grants  that  a  disposition  to  run  into  morbid 
excitement,  presumably  on  the  subject  of  Christ's  Advent,  p. 
xxxviii,  and  into  an  unpractical  enthusiasm,  is  not  found  in  any 
other  of  the  communities  addressed  in  the  PauUne  Epistles.  This 
admission  of  itself  weakens  the  probabiUty  of  such  a  disposition  in 
Thessalonica;  especially  as  he  utters  no  word,  as  we  shall  see,  to 
correct  it  there.  The  reference  to  his  own  self-support  is  not 
urged  against  the  insubordinate,  as  we  should  expect  on  the  as- 
sumption of  Parousia  excitement,  as  an  example  of  industry  even 
amid  eager  expectation  of  the  Advent,  but  as  showing  his  purpose 
not  to  burden  the  Church.  And  more  generally,  there  was  no 
reason  why  the  most  vivid  Advent  hopes  should  anywhere  lead 
to  idleness,  in  view  of  the  famiUar  Gospel  teaching  that  men  who 
wait  for  their  Lord  should  4et  their  loins  be  girded  about  and 


224    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

their  lights  burning';  that,  as  in  the  parable  group,  Mtw.  25,  fol- 
lowing the  discourse  on  the  Last  Things,  they  are  as  in  the  Talents 
to  work,  and  as  in  the  Judgment  scene  they  are  to  minister  to  others 
while,  as  in  the  Ten  Virgins,  they  are  watching  for  and  witnessing 
to  their  Lord's  return. 

Further  the  assumption  of  Advent  excitement  finds  no  support 
in  the  passage  on  which  it  is  definitely  based:  the  call  'not  to  be 
shaken  from  your  mind  nor  yet  be  troubled.'    This  is  constantly 
viewed  as  addressed  to  the  insubordinate  or  in  general  to  the 
Church  as  agitated  like  them  by  the  coming  of  the  Day.    But  on 
the  contrary  it  is  a  call  to  the  Church  based  on  the  immediately 
preceding  chapter  of  hopes  and  prayers  for  the  Day,  and  on  the 
directly  following  argument  against  the  report  that  it  is  already 
come  without  the  fulfilhnent  of  the  hope  of  glory  connected  with 
it  in  chapter  1,  and  without  the  realization,  chapter- 2,  of  the 
assurances  in  the  primitive  eschatology,  vss.  5.6,  of  the  final 
victorious  conflict  with  evil  in  its  complete  revelation,  and  of  its 
destruction  by  the  manifestation  of  Christ's  Parousia,  or  in  Ben- 
gel's  phrase  by  'the  first  dawn  of  theAdvent.'    SaXei;co  and  dpoico, 
which  are  probably  terms  familiar  in  apocalyptic  teachings  and 
adopted   here  in   appHcations  defined   by  a  qualifiying  phrase 
and  the  context,  do  not,  therefore,  refer  to  excited  fears  lest  the 
Advent  will  suddenly  take  place,  but  to  the  mental  unsettlement 
and  to  the  disheartening  discouragement  of  the  faithful,  lest  it 
will  not  take  place  at  all.     Paul's  definite  reference  in  the  two 
words  is  clearly  seen  in  the  structure  of  the  sentence:  'in  the  in- 
terest of  the  Parousia'  they  are  not  to  be  unsettled  from  their 
understanding  of  this  fundamental  Christian  hope;  and  'in  the 
interest  of  our  gathering  together  into  the  Lord,'  they  are  not  to 
be  troubled  and  disheartened,  as  they  must  be  if  the  Day  is  come 
without  a  fulfillment  of  their  Advent  hopes.    The  direct  support- 
ing parallels  are  the  exhortations,  I  Thess.  4,  13-18,  not  to  sorrow, 
in  view  of  the  reassurance  of  the  Parousia  and  of  our  gathering 
together  with   Christ   returning   in   glory;  in  I  Cor.  parallel  to 
/xi)  adXeOii),  is  the  call  ISpaXoL  ylveade,  ApicTaKivTyroi,  which  is  oc- 
casioned by  the  same  denial  of  resurrection,  vs.  12;  and  parallel 
to  dpoeladai  is  vs.  19  'we  are  of  all  men  most  miserable'  if  our 
hope  in  Christ  is  in  this  life  only  and  does  not  include  hope  con- 
cerning those  fallen  asleep  in  Christ.    This  initial  indication  of 


L 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  225 

reference  of  the  unsettlement  and  trouble  to  threatened  loss  of  the 
hope  of  Parousia  and  of  our  final  gathering  together  unto  the  Lord, 
is  confirmed  also  by  the  conclusion  of  the  passage.  Because  of 
Paul's  reiteration  of  the  primitive  teaching,  they  are  in  2,  15  ff ., 
in  contrast  to  adXeveiv  to  stand  and  hold  fast  the  traditions  which 
had  been  taught  by  him;  while  in  contrast  to  OpotiaSai,  God  the 
giver  of  eternal  consolation  and  good  hope  in  grace  will  establish 
them  in  every  good  word  and  work. 

It  is  claimed,  however,  that  the  two  assumptions  of  a  report 
of  the  imminence  of  the  Advent,  and  of  resulting  fanatical  excite- 
ment, are  supported  by  the  description  of  the  araKToi  as  idlers. 
This  is  forcibly  argued  by  Frame  both  in  his  commentary  and  in 
his  essay .^  He  holds  that  in  accord  with  the  usage  in  papyri,  the 
word  signifies  idlers,  or  with  Rutherford,  loafers;  that  the  specific 
apostolic  tradition  they  fail  to  observe  is  the  command  to  work; 
that  from  their  idleness  issue  all  the  other  faults  ascribed  to  them ; 
and  that  the  cause  of  it  is  excitement  due  to  the  report  that  the 
Day  is  present.  Since  there  would  have  been  no  occasion  for 
agitations  if  the  Day  had  actually  been  present  with  none  of  the 
predicted  accompanying  portents,  Dobschiitz  and  others  regard 
'is  present'  as  a  future  which  is  ahnost  present.  Findlay,  Frame 
and  Zahn  practically  make  the  same  charge  by  paraphrasing: 
Hhe  period  indicated  by  iinipa  has  dawned  and  the  Lord  is  ex- 
pected from  heaven  at  any  moment.'  But  such  modification  is 
not  warranted  by  the  text;  and  it  is  against  the  constant  New 
Testament  warnings,  as  I  Thess.  5,  2.3.,  that  the  Day  will  break 
in  unexpectedly  as  a  thief  in  the  night.  Besides,  throughout  the 
Apostolic  Age,  the  conviction  that  the  Lord  may  appear  at  any 
hour,  that  the  Day  is  at  hand,  led  to  no  fanatical  excitement  or 
idleness;  but  was  appealed  to,  as  in  I  Thess.  5, 6  ff.,  Rom.  13,  11  ff. 
as  an  incentive  to  soberness  and  diligence  in  the  Christian  moral 
walk.  That  the  ftraxrot  were  idlers  is  true:  but  not  by  reason  of 
paralysis  of  their  energies  by  adventist  agitations.  For  as  Frame 
clearly  shows,  the  charge  of  being  Trepiepya^biievoi  points  to 
their  meddlesome  activities  and  interference  in  the  conduct  of 
church  affairs.  The  idleness  was  only  abstention  from  any  work 
needed  for  their  self-support;  and  we  have  already  considered 

'/.  C.  Commentary  on  Thesscdonians,  p.  197;  Essays  in  Modem  Theology^ 
in  honor  of  Dr.  Briggs,  pp.  191  ff. 


226    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

this  as  based  on  their  claim  of  freedom  from  the  duty  of  such 
self-support  on  the  ground  that  they  themselves  were  apostles, 
prophets  or  evangelists  who  have  authority  to  live  of  the  Gospel. 
In  particular  it  is  not  necessary  to  consider  that  they  are  called 
AraKTot  simply  because  they  were  idlers;  but  rather  because  this 
refusal  to  work  with  their  own  hands  was  one  outstanding  and 
significant  mark  of  their  insubordination.  In  the  history  of  the 
usage  of  the  term  as  sunmiarized  by  Frame,  the  root  idea  of  op- 
position to  authority,  rule,  norm,  is  maintained;  whether  it  re- 
sults in  a  soldier's  neglect  to  observe  discipline  and  commands,  in 
the  citizens'  disorderly  contempt  of  estabUshed  order  and  moral 
customs,  or  in  the  apprentice's  disobedience  of  his  master's  di- 
rections. From  the  very  interesting  papyrus  of  an  apprentice's 
indenture  in  a.  d.  66,  Oxyr.  Pap.,  II,  275,  Frame  and  Milligan 
quote  in  support  of  the  contemporary  meaning  of  araKTeo)  as 
simply  idleness,  the  proviso  in  Une  25  that  the  boy  is  to  be  docked 
for  the  number  of  days  on  which  araKTrjau,  which  Grenfell  and 
Hunt  render  'plays  truant':  MilUgan  'fails  to  attend';  Frame, 
'idles.'  It  is  obvious  that  the  boy's  idleness  would  be  a  ground 
for  debiting  his  account;  but  even  then  his  idleness  could  be  con- 
ceived as  the  outcome  of  his  Arajla:  his  refusal  to  submit  to  the 
employer  and  his  rules.  And  this  view  of  it  is  in  fact  supported 
in  the  document  itself,  whose  first  stipulation,  lines  10  f.,  concern- 
ing the  work  of  the  boy,  describes  him  as  8f,aKovovvTa  Kal  iroLovvra 
iravra  ra  iiriTaffffOfjiepa  auT$.  Here  'all  the  directions'  is  a  more 
inclusive  reference  than  avoidance  of  idleness,  and  indicates  also 
that  idleness  is  viewed  as  but  one  of  many  conceivable  forms  of 
insubordination  to  the  master's  authority.  In  another  papyrus. 
Ox.  Pop.,  725,  we  have  moreover  a  definite  distinction  of  kraKHo) 
from  idleness  in  the  use  of  the  series,  Une  40,  kpy^,  aaOevio), 
&TaKTio):  the  apprentice  is  to  make  up  the  time  he  last  lost  on  ac- 
count of  *  idleness  ill-health,  disobedience  or  far  any  other  reason.'  * 
In  the  charge  against  the  AraKrot,  as  Professor  Frame  has  con- 
vincingly shown,  Paul  signaUzes  their  refusal  to  work.  This,  in 
our  view,  is  because  the  refusal  coupled  with  demand  for  support 

•  In  this  contract  also  the  distinct  reference  of  &TaKTi<ji)  is  explained  in  the 
preceding  stipulation  of  Hnes  10  flf.,  that  the  boy  is  to  'perform  all  the  orders 
that  may  be  given  him  by  the  said  teacher,'  and  by  the  later  stipulation  of 
his  return  to  'perform  all  his  duties  as  aforesaid.' 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  227 

is  both  the  concrete  expression  of  their  repudiation  of  the  admoni- 
tion and  authority  of  the  local  ministry,  I  Thess.  5,  14,  and  of 
the  authority  of  the  primitive  moral  didache  4,  1  ff.  and  II  Thess. 
3,  6,  which  includes  the  rule  of  labor;  and  is  also  the  direct  ex- 
pression of  their  claim  of  spiritual  authority  as  teachers,  upon 
which  their  masked  doctrinal  propaganda  is  based.  We  hold 
therfore  that  araKToi  describes  their  general  position,  and  that 
Paul  makes  in  II  Thess.  5, 11,  a  specific  reference  to  its  significant 
outcome  in  idleness  in  the  appended  participle  clauses,  not  of 
opposition  but  of  *  more  exact  specification':  *  working  not  at  all*; 
which  is  further  specified  as  an  idleness  that  is  an  activity  of  med- 
dlesomeness and  interference.  We  submit,  therefore,  as  before 
that  these  fonns  of  their  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  Church  in 
Thessalonica  are  fully  accounted  for  as  the  direct  outcome  of 
their  refusal  of  submission  to  the  authority  of  the  Church's  tradi- 
tion of  faith,  morals  and  hope,  and  to  the  discipline  of  its  ministry; 
and  that  this  refusal  was  based  on  their  boasts  of  superior  eman- 
cipating spiritual  gifts,  united  with  a  demand  for  recognition  of 
their  own  spiritual  authority. 

The  Apostle's  reserve  in  his  references  to  them  and  in  his 
method  of  repelling  their  propaganda  indicates  that  he  has  not 
yet  sufficiently  complete  and  definite  information;  and  this  be- 
cause of  their  insidious  and  secret  mode  of  disseminating  their 
views.  There  is  as  yet  no  reference  to  the  relation  of  gnosis  to 
redemption;  not  any  certain  allusions  to  the  denial  of  the  Church's 
christology :  that  Jesus  is  Lord  and  Christ.  It  is  possible,  however, 
that  he  may  suspect  the  trend  of  their  teaching  to  deny  these 
titles  to  the  human  Jesus,  in  view  of  his  own  use  of  them  in  these 
Epistles.^ 

A  general  objection  to  the  construction  of  this  opposition  in 
Thessalonica  which  we  have  presented,  is  that  it  involves  recogni- 
tion of  a  movement  with  several  characteristics  of  second-century 
gnosticism  as  appearing  in  the  middle  of  the  first  century;  and  that 
it  presents  the  problem  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  perversion 
of  Christian  principles  occurring  within  twenty  years  after  the 

'He  names  the  Christ  48  times;  yet  even  in  these  early  Letters,  only  3 
times  as  Jesus,  in  two  passages,  in  one  of  which  the  name  being  in  apposition 
with  the  title.  Son  of  God;  while  38  times  as  Lord  or  Lord  combined  with 
Jesiia  or  Christ;  4  times  as  Christ  and  twice  as  Christ  Jesus. 


228    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Ascension  and  at  the  outset  of  Paul's  mission  in  Europe.  We  can 
more  satisfactorily  consider  this  general  problem  after  an  inspec- 
tion of  the  data  of  the  later  Epistles.  We  proceed,  therefore,  to 
inquire  what  support  for  the  above  construction  and  for  the  possi- 
bility of  the  emergence  of  a  gnosticizing  movement  within  the 
Church  at  so  early  a  date,  is  given  in  the  next  group  of  Epistles, 
all  of  which  like  I  and  II  Thess.  were  connected  with  Corinth,  and 
written  only  five  or  six  years  later. 

2.   I  AND   II   CORINTfflANS  AND  ROMANS 
THE  EPISTLES  TO   CORINTH 

The  Epistles  to  Corinth  are  concerned  principally  with  apology 
and  polemic.  The  errors  against  which  these  are  directed  may  be 
recognized  in  the  converging  results  of  an  examination  of  the  main 
topics  selected  for  discussion,  of  the  descriptions  of  the  teachers 
and  leaders  of  the  opposing  movement;  and  of  the  doctrinal 
interests  and  contents  of  the  two  Letters.  The  results  will  serve 
both  to  test  the  indications  of  the  character  of  the  earUer  stage  of 
opposition  in  Thessalonica,  and  also  of  the  opposing  movement 
both  in  the  later  PauHne  and  other  New  Testament  Epistles. 

Surveying  briefly  the  main  topics,  we  find  as  in  Thessalonica  a 
most  direct  interest  in  reafiirming  the  primitive  eschatological 
teaching  concerning  Christ's  Parousia  and  the  general  resurrection 
in  opposition  to  its  denial  by  some  in  Corinth.  In  intimate  relation 
to  this  denial,  we  meet  with  detailed  and  applied  discussion  of  the 
possession  of  the  Spirit  and  its  manifestations  in  spiritual  gifts. 
Especially  prominent  is  reference  to  the  claim  of  individual  freedom 
by  possession  of  the  Spirit,  from  the  authority  of  the  Church's 
ministry  and  definitely  from  that  of  Paul;  of  the  ethical  precepts 
and  general  customs  in  worship.  Further,  there  are  found  constant 
protests  against  the  divisive  effect  of  such  claims  and  boasts,  upon 
Church  unity  and  brotherhood.  And,  most  important,  we  mark 
the  unmasking  of  these  boasted  spiritual  gifts  as  displacing  re- 
demption by  means  of  Christ's  death;  and  eventually  as  dis- 
placing the  Apostolic  tradition  of  the  incarnation  and  divine 
Sonship  of  Jesus,  by  some  theory  of  dividing  Jesus  from  the 
divine  Christ. 

We  at  once  recognize  that  such  teachings  as  these  are  utterly 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  229 

opposed  not  only  to  the  teachings  of  Paul  and  his  fellow-worker 
Apollos,  but  equally  to  those  of  Peter;  and  most  definitely  to 
Judaistic  teaching.  Turning  therefore  to  the  references  to  the 
opposing  teachers  in  Corinth,  there  remains  the  possibility  that 
these  controverted  positions  are  those  advocated  by  the  last  of  the 
four  groups  named  by  Paul  at  the  outset:  those  who  I  Cor.  1,  12 
say  *I  am  of  Christ. '^^  In  considering  such  a  possibility  we  are 
immediately  confronted  with  a  denial  not  only  of  its  existence  but 
of  Paul's  reference  to  it.  Thus  Robiger  in  disregard  first  of  all,  of 
the  grammatical  structure,  insisted  that  'I  am  of  Christ'  was  the 
common  profession  of  the  three  factions,  based  on  their  relations  to 
the  three  leaders:  'I  as  of  Paul,  Cephas  or  Apollos,  am  of  Christ.' 
More  frequently,  following  Eichhom,  the  words  are  regarded  as 
expressing  the  attitude  of  neutrals  who  refuse  to  be  inscribed  with 
any  party  badge,  and  are  content  to  be  known  only  as  disciples  of 
Christ.  Developing  this  view  Pott,  as  cited  by  Baur,  argues  from 
I  Cor.  3,  22,  that  the  positions  and  doctrines  of  those  of  Christ  are 
approved  by  the  Apostle  himself;  while  Mayerhoff,  Bleek  and 
Pfleiderer  advance  to  the  conclusion  that '  I  am  of  Christ '  was  also 
Paul's  own  profession. ^^  But  these  theories  fail  to  recognize  that 
the  claim  of  those  of  Christ  is  condemned  equally  with  the  party 
cries  of  the  other  three  factions;  and  in  II  Cor.  10,  7,  Paul's 
assertion  that  we  too  are  of  Christ,  is  made  against  his  opponents 
whom  he  condenms  in  chaps.  10-13,  and  whose  boast  is  to  be  *  of 
Christ.' 
A  summary  elimination  of  such  a  party  is  made  by  rejecting  the 

^"Special  literature  on  the  Christ  Party,  apart  from  commentaries  and 
introductions,  is  listed  in  W.  Liitgert's  Freiheitspredigt  u.  Schwarmgeistet  in 
Korinth,  p.  41;  and  also  in  Ignaz  Rohr,  Paulits  u.  d.  Gemeinde  v.  Korinth, 
1899,  pp.  103  iff.,  where  he  also  presents  and  discusses  a  sixfold  division  of 
the  various  theories  concerning  the  parties.  A  survey  of  them  is  given  by 
W.  Mangold  in  his  edition  of  Bleek's  Einleitung,  1875,  pp.  462-465. 

^^All  these  views  in  combination  form  a  part  of  McGifiFert's  arguments, 
Apostolic  Age,  p.  295  f.,  against  the  existence  of  a  Christ  party.  Rohr  too 
combines  these  views,  but  as  representing  the  earlier  attitude  of  those  who 
being  grieved  at  the  partisan  movements,  avowed  themselves  to  be  simply 
of  Christ;  yet  eventually  through  a  feeling  of  superiority  to  parties  and  their 
defects,  they  became  themselves  a  party,  oy.  ciL,  p.  153  f.  Lightfoot,  Gala- 
tians,  1869,  p.  354,  in  opposing  the  denial  of  the  existence  of  a  Christ  party, 
remarks  that  'there  is  in  fact  more  evidence  for  the  existence  of  a  party  of 
Christ  than  there  is  of  a  party  of  Peter.' 


230    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

words  from  the  text  of  I  Cor.  1,  12.  This  is  done  by  Heinrici  in  the 
Meyer  commentary;  by  J.  Weiss  in  his  commentary  and  m  his 
Urchristenthum,  p.  257  f.,  who  asserts  that  it  is  a  gloss  by  some 
reader  recalling  perhaps  II  Cor.  10,  7;  and  the  text  is  also  among 
those  which  Moffatt  considers  it  to  be  a  legitimate  hypothesis  to 
regard  as  interpolations. ^^  A  principal  argument  for  rejecting  the 
text  is  that  those  of  Christ  are  not  further  mentioned  or  referred  to 
in  I  Cor.  But  a  definite  opposing  movement  distinct  from  Judais- 
tic  attack,  as  already  stated,  appears  in  both  Epistles ;  it  is  referred 
to  in  II  Cor.  10,  7  under  the  description  of  'to  be  of  Christ,'  and 
would  therefore  be  appropriately  mentioned  under  the  same  title 
in  the  list  of  factions  in  I  Cor.  1,  12.  The  argument  that  it  is  not 
mentioned  by  name  in  the  summary  I  Cor.  3,  22,  overlooks  the 
reference  in  the  context,  vss.  18-20,  to  boasts  of  the  party  to  posses- 
sion of  a  gift  of  wisdom,  which  Paul  declares  is  folly,, deception, 
empty  and  in  craftiness;  and  in  the  next  verses,  in  place  of  recog- 
nizing their  right  to  the  title  Ho  be  of  Christ,'  he  inserts  a  refer- 
ence to  a  series  of  antitheses  parallel  to  the  series  in  Rom.  8,  38  ff . ; 
Col.  1,  16;  Ephes.  1,  21,  which  suggest  topics  of  gnostic  teaching 
of  the  party. 

The  earlier  method  of  eliminating  a  Christ  party  with  distinc- 
tive character  and  policy  was  to  identify  it  with  one  of  the  other 
factions.  Baur  led  the  way  in  his  article  on  the  Christ  Party, 
1831,  and  in  Paul  I,  269  ff .  Following  a  clue  of  J.  E.  C.  Schmidt,  he 
maintained  that  as  the  followers  of  Paul  and  ApoUos  formed  a 
group,  so  the  Christ  party  was  a  group  of  Judaizing  Christians 
identical  with  the  Cephas  party:  calling  themselves  those  of 
Cephas,  because  Peter  held  the  primacy  among  the  Jewish  Apos- 
tles; and  also  called  themselves  those  of  Christ,  because  they 
relied  on  direct  connection  with  Christ  as  the  chief  token  of  genuine 
apostolic  authority.  This  identification  of  the  two  factions  was 
soon  abandoned  in  the  Tubingen  School.  Hilgenfeld  found  the 
distinction  between  them  in  the  fact  that  in  the  one  case  the 
adherents  were  Peter's  converts  or  followers;  and  in  the  other,  they 
were  followers  of  Judaizers  most  bitterly  opposed  to  Paul,  and  who 
called  themselves  'those  of  Christ'  because  they  had  been  personal 

"Zahn  offers  explanation  of  the  omiflsion  of  reference  to  the  words  by 
Clement  of  Rome,  ch.  47,  occasionally  by  Origen,  and  by  Adamantius,  in  a 
brief  discussion,  Introduction,  §  18,  note  9. 


I 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  231 

disciples  of  Jesus.  Holsten,  Ev.  d.  Paulus,  218  ff.,  adds  that  they 
may  have  been  apostles  of  Christ  in  the  more  general  sense,  as 
having  been  of  the  number  of  the  Seventy  disciples  or  of  the  five 
hundred  to  whom  the  risen  Christ  appeared.  In  later  criticism  the 
view  that  the  Christ  party  was  Judaistic  has  been  very  generally 
maintained;  and  usually  they  are  regarded  in  contrast  to  the 
milder  Jewish  Christians  under  Peter's  influence  as  ultra- Judaists, 
radically  opposed  to  Paul;  at  times  as  emissaries  of  a  Judaistic 
reaction  beginning  with  the  conflict  of  *  certain  from  James '  with 
Paul  at  Antioch;  or  even  as  being  interested  only  in  'a  fleshly 
legal  Jewish  messiah, '  in  opposition  to  Paul's  doctrine  of  a  spiritual 
heavenly  Christ,  based  on  his  visions  and  revelations. 

Zahn  too  insists  that  the  principal  opposition  was  that  of 
Judaizers,  who  are  '  those  of  Cephas. '  In  his  construction  of  the 
Christ  party  the  claim  '  I  am  of  Christ '  is  the  sharpest  expression 
of  the  spirit  of  independence  to  which  the  Church  as  a  whole  was 
inclined;  of  its  deliberate  indifference  to  every  human  authority; 
and  of  its  proud  ignoring  of  all  historical  dependence  of  its  own 
Christian  position.  While,  therefore,  he  says,  no  large  section  of 
the  two  Epistles  is  definitely  devoted  to  the  refutation  of  those  of 
Christ,  yet  Paul  throughout  in  his  replies  to  the  Church,  asserted 
his  opinion  of  the  Christian  knowledge  and  judgment  and  resulting 
independence  of  the  boasters.  These,  however,  are  not  intruders 
from  Palestine  or  elsewhere;  but  individuals  of  the  congregation 
whom  he  singles  out  as  the  most  advanced  representatives  of  the 
Corinthians '  claims  to  independence. 

This  recognition  of  an  opposition  distinct  from  that  of  the 
Judaizers  may  serve  as  a  transition  to  the  view  which  finds  no 
polemic  by  or  against  the  Cephas  party,  but  on  the  contrary  a 
defense  and  polemic  against  the  attacks  of  a  Christ  party  regarded 
as  intruding  teachers;  Jews,  though  not  personal  followers  of 
Jesus;  opposed  to  Apostolic  traditions;  and  in  independence  of  its 
preachers,  attempting  to  introduce  a  system  of  gnostic  character. 
Several  features  of  this  view  were  early  advocated  in  the  theories  of 
Schenkel,  Kniewel  and  others,  cp.  Rohr's  list,  p.  129,  which  emerged 
in  the  immediate  discussion  of  Baur's  essay;  and  have  since  found 
occasional  approval,  as  by  De  Wette  and  Mangold.  But  the  fuller 
construction  of  the  view,  with  discussion  in  detail  of  the  data, 
appears  in  a  series  of  monographs  by  W.  Liitgert  of  Halle,  appear- 


232    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

ing  since  1908  as  listed  on  p.  2n.^'  It  rests  in  the  first  place  on  the 
denial  that  the  opposition  in  Corinth  is  Judaistic.  As  has  been 
stated  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  the  Apostle's  denunciation  in  the 
two  Epistles  of  any  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  Judaizing 
party,  as  in  Galatians  and  elsewhere.  Equally  no  trace  of  any  op- 
position to  Paul's  Gospel  of  universalism,  Christian  liberty, 
justification  by  faith  or  of  any  feature  of  his  denial  of  the  teaching 
of  Judaizers.  On  the  contrary,  to  the  Corinthian  false  teachers  the 
Apostle  is  not  free  enough,  not  as  spiritual  as  themselves.  And 
they  seem,  although  they  are  Jews,  not  to  make  an  issue  concern- 
ing circumcision  or  Sabbath,  and  to  have  no  interest  in  the  avoid- 
ance of  heathen  associations,  or  in  the  observance  of  the  Law,  or  in 
the  messianic  hope.  Zahn's  assertion  is  incredible:  that  Paul's 
warning,  I  Cor.  3,  16  f.,  against  destroying  the  Temple  of  God  is  to 
be  referred  to  a  faction  claiming  the  leadership  or  sympathy  of 
Cephas;  much  more,  the  reference  to  it  of  his  anathema  on  those 
who  love  not  the  Lord,  with  the  asseveration  of  the  watchword, 
'Our  Lord  comes,'  which  not  even  the  most  radical  Judaizer 

^'  The  tendency  in  other  recent  discussion  is,  while  maintaining  a  Judaistic 
activity  in  Corinth,  to  recognize  also  the  beginnings  of  a  gnostic  movement, 
which,  however,  is  not  referred  to  the  Christ  party.  Pfieiderer,  Urchristm.,  I, 
102  ff.,  regards  *  I  am  of  Christ'  as  Paul's  profession;  those  of  Cephas  as  Ju- 
daizers; assigns  the  Alexandrian  gnostic  features  of  opposition  to  the  followers 
of  ApoUos;  and  the  false  developments  of  freedom  to  those  of  Paul.  Bacon 
in  his  Story  of  St.  Paid  and  Introd.,  finds  in  Corinth  a  focus  of  Judaistic  ac- 
tivity, not  by  Jewish  behevers  of  the  Cephas  group  but  by  the  Christ  party 
who  are  self-styled  converts  of  Christ,  opposed  to  Paul's  apostolic  authority 
and  Gospel.  The  strong,  spiritual,  enlightened  antinomians  and  deniers  of 
resurrection  are  Pauhne  converts  perverting  his  Gospel  of  freedom.  And  he 
also  recognizes  that  a  gnosticism  of  Hellenistic  type  is  already  appearing 
among  the  adherents  of  ApoUos,  who  was  himself  not  tainted  with  this  error. 
With  this,  however,  Paul  will  be  free  to  grapple  in  the  next  group  of  letters. 
For  Weinel,  Bib.  Theolog.  N.  T.,  the  Christ  party  are  opponents  from  a  more 
definite  Jewish  Christian  standpoint  than  that  of  Cephas.  The  distinct 
gnostic  features  are  based  on  false  developments  of  the  Pauline  doctrine  of 
freedom  by  some  of  his  converts  from  the  mystery  religions.  Lake,  Earlier 
Epistles  of  St.  Paid,  is  inclined  with  Robiger  to  eliminate  a  Christ  party; 
denies  also  a  Judaistic  opposition;  and  while  concluding  that  Paul's  opponents 
were  probably  the  spiritual,  holds  that  there  is  no  evidence  to  determine 
whether  they  are  adherents  of  one  of  the  parties  of  I  Cor.  1, 12.  From  the  tone 
of  I  Cor.  1-4  it  is  not  improbable  that  they  were  those  of  Apollos:  but  if 
II  Cor.  10,  7  refers  to  a  Christ  party,  it  is  more  probable  that  it  was  from  it 
that  the  hostility  to  Paul  was  chiefly  developed. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  233 

would  deny.  Nor  if  Paul's  Corinthian  enemies  are  Judaizers,  and 
with  the  Tubingen  critics,  from  Palestine  and  Jerusalem,  can  we 
understand  his  intense  zeal  to  secure  from  his  Gentile  converts,  the 
collection  for  the  Jerusalem  Church. 

Baur  explains  the  absence  of  Judaistic  issues  in  the  polemic  of 
the  two  Epistles  as  due  to  the  necessity  that  in  this  thoroughly 
Greek  Church  the  Judaizers  should  appear  in  a  more  polished  and 
less  strictly  Jewish  form.  They  could  not  expect  a  favorable 
reception  if  they  had  irmnediately  brought  forward  their  princi- 
ples. Zeal  for  the  Mosaic  law  may  be  essentially  their  actuating 
motive;  but  they  fell  back  on  the  special  ground  of  their  Judaistic 
opposition :  they  attacked  the  apostolic  authority  of  Paul.  This  has 
been  the  standing  explanation  given  by  those  who  assert  a  Judais- 
tic movement  which  is  characterized  by  no  features  of  Judaistic 
teaching:  it  was  subtly  conducting  a  masked  attack;  conniving 
temporarily  at  Gentile  freedom  while  assailing  Paul's  person,  and 
intending  after  destroying  his  influence  to  impose  the  Judaistic 
position  upon  his  converts.  Such  a  strategy,  however,  would  be  a 
reflection  upon  Jewish  intelligence  and  would  be  doomed  to  failure. 
It  would  moreover  be  contrary,  as  we  observe  in  Galatians,  to  the 
constant  Judaistic  spirit  and  methods  of  zealous,  open,  direct 
attack  along  the  whole  line  of  the  Pauline  position. 

Having  therefore  found  no  reason  to  eliminate  a  Christ  party  or 
to  identify  it  with  an  assumed  Judaistic  movement  under  any 
party  cry,  we  further  find  no  occasion  to  identify  it  with  radical 
partisans  of  Apollos  or  of  Paul.  The  reasons  for  this  will  appear  as 
we  now  proceed  to  attempt  to  determine  more  definitely  from  the 
data  of  the  two  Epistles,  the  dominant  features  of  the  movement 
which  Paul  combats,  and  which  we  have  already  identified  as  that 
of  those  who  say  *  I  am  of  Christ. ' 

The  intruding  errorists  are  of  course  professing  Christians.  As 
such  they  have  been  baptized  after  the  usual  instruction  and  upon 
profession  of  behef  made  in  a  baptismal  formula,  I  Cor.  15,  3  ff., 
which  would  include  the  statement  that  Jesus  is  Christ,  Son  of  God, 
Lord,  who  died  for  our  sins  and  rose  again  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures. But  Paul's  emphasis  on  the  redemptive  death  and  resur- 
rection of  the  Christ  as  among  the  essentials,  ev  Trpwrots,  of  his 
Gospel  instruction,  may  be  in  direct  contrast  to  a  profession  of 
faith  made  *in  vain,'  in  the  immediately  preceding  words,  which 


234    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

may  also  be  an  allusion  to  the  false  teachers  and  their  adherents. 
For  the  most  obvious  explanation,  in  the  context  of  vss.  12.17.56  f., 
of  the  possibility  of  such  vain  profession,  would  be  in  a  distortion  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  and  resurrection  and  evacuation  of  the 
Old  Testament  teaching  of  a  suffering  and  redeeming  Messiah  by 
specious  exegesis.  We  can  only  conjecture  that  they  made  the 
baptismal  profession  with  their  own  reservations  and  under- 
standing of  Christ's  person  and  work;  and  made  it  thus,  because 
of  their  attraction  to  Christianity  by  such  other  of  its  features  as 
its  doctrines  of  revelations,  mediation,  freedom  from  legalism  and 
by  its  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  evident  that  as  professing  disciples 
they  took  part  in  the  worship,  as  in  chaps.  12  and  14,  and  attended 
the  agapse,  although  they  may  have  taken  a  special  attitude  to- 
wards the  Holy  Conununion,  I  Cor.  11,  17  ff.;  10, 16  ff. 

They  are  next  converts  from  Judaism,  II  Cor.  11,*  22  ff.,  not 
Greek  converts  developing  Pauline  teaching  into  philosophical 
theories.  They  come  to  Corinth  from  an  unnamed  church  with 
letters  commendatory;  and  therefore  claim  to  be  apostles,  messen- 
gers of  some  church.  In  II  Cor.  8,  23,  the  brethren  sent  with  Titus 
are  apostles  of  the  churches,  and  perhaps  significantly  as  the  *  glory 
of  Christ,'  in  contrast  to  these  false  apostles  who  in  11,  13  fashion 
themselves  into  apostles  of  Christ,  like  Satan  fashioning  himself 
into  an  angel  of  light.  They  boast  in  10,  7  f.,  Ho  be  of  Christ ' ;  and 
probably  because  of  a  claim  resting  on  their  alleged  possession  of  his 
Spirit  in  full  measure,  to  have  immediate  revelations  of  the  Lord, 
12,  1,  and  direct  authority  from  him,  are  taunted  as  'the  super- 
eminent  apostles,'  11,  5;  12, 11,  who  further  in  10,  12-18  commend 
themselves  by  their  boasts  of  superior  spiritual  gifts  as  Usted  in  the 
six  series  of  I  Cor.  12-14.  As  regards  their  work  they  are  not 
missionaries  and  evangelists  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  uncon- 
verted. They  intrude,  as  in  II  Cor.  10,  15  ff.,  into  other  men's 
labors  and  boast  in  another's  province  in  regard  of  things  ready  to 
their  hand.  As  yet  they  are  not  a  heretical  party  and  have  made  no 
formal  schism.  In  I  Cor.  11,  18  ff.,  the  ax^ayLara  are  cliques  at 
the  agapse;  and  the  alp^aeis  refer  to  the  resulting  divisions  which 
serve  the  needful  purpose,  Set,  of  making  manifest  those  who  are 
the  approved  Christians  at  Corinth.  ^^    Their  alleged  building  on 

"  For  this  view  of  the  passage  compare  I  John  2,  19;  'they  went  out  from 
UB  .   .  .  in  order  that  they  might  be  made  manifest,  ^ai^cpw^wo'tJ',  that 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  235 

Paul's  foundation,  I  Cor.  3,  11  ff.,  evokes  the  warnings  of  the 
testing  fires  of  final  judgment  and  of  the  divine  destruction  of  those 
who  are  destroying  God's  temple;  cp.  also  II  Cor.  10,  4.  5.  8;  13,  10. 
In  contrast  to  the  Judaizers  who  in  Gal.  3,  1  ff.  professed  to  perfect 
the  mere  beginnings  which  Paul  had  made  by  their  other  gospel  of 
the  need  of  legalistic  obedience  after  conversion,  these  intruders 
profess  to  build  up  the  Corinthians  from  the  mere  beginnings 
of  Paul's  Gospel  of  freedom  into  maturity  of  spiritual  knowledge 
and  perfection.  It  is  these  arrogant  pretensions  which  give  rise  to 
his  constant  impassioned  retorts,  not  only  I  Cor.  3,  1  ff.,  as  to  the 
inunaturity  of  the  Corinthians  for  the  wisdom  which  he  speaks 
among  the  perfect,  but  also  as  to  the  work  of  the  intruders,  which 
unlike  his  own  and  in  contradiction  of  their  boasts,  is  not  upbuild- 
ing but  destructive.  And  in  II  Cor.  10,  3  ff.,  he  addresses  himself  to 
the  attack  upon  the  alleged  upbuilding  by  his  enemies,  which  will 
be  the  casting  down  of  mighty  fortresses,  imaginations,  Xoyiafiol, 
and  every  high  thing  that  is  exalted  against  the  knowledge  of  God, 
and  bringing  every  thought  into  captivity  to  the  obedience  of 
Christ. 

Their  general  position  is  illuminated  by  further  details  of  their 
attitude  to  Paul  and  his  work  and  by  his  allusions  to  them.  In- 
volved in  their  disparagement  of  his  teaching  as  mere  milk  for 
babes  and  not  solid  food  for  the  mature,  as  sarMc  not  spiritual,  as 
resting  on  a  knowing  of  Christ  only  after  the  flesh,  as  being  indeed 
a  hiding  of  the  gospel  and  not  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  was  their 
disparagement  of  his  insufficient  spiritual  gifts  and  of  his  Apostolic 
office.  They  sneer  at  his  weak  bodily  presence  and  hold  his  speech 
in  contempt;  impugn  his  failure  to  revisit  Corinth  as  due  to  con- 
sciousness of  the  weakness  of  his  position,  and  attribute  the  post- 
ponement of  his  visit  to  insincerity  and  fickleness.  His  own  claim 
to  be  an  Apostle,  they  parry  with  demands  for  his  conunendatory 
letters  and  for  a  proof  of  Christ  speaking  in  him.  His  self-support 
is  distorted  as  a  confession  that  he  dares  not  claim  support  by  the 
church  as  his  apostolic  right;  and  even  as  a  subterfuge  to  cloak  his 
purpose  of  appropriating  the  collection  he  was  urging  for  the  Jeru- 
salem church.  They  may  not  discredit  the  truth  of  his  message, 
such  as  it  was;  but  however  the  debated  passage,  II  Cor.  11,  4,  be 
not  all  are  of  us,'  with  I  Cor.  11,  19:  'there  must  be  alpe(T€LS  among  you  in 
order  that  Kal  ol  So/ci/iot  <f>avepol  yevo3VTaL  Iv  VfuvJ 


236    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

interpreted,  they  deny  his  authority  and  credentials,  the  adequacy 
and  fullness  of  his  gospel,  and  his  right  to  exercise  Apostolic  disci- 
pline in  the  Church  of  Corinth. 

The  dangers  of  such  an  attack  were  heightened  by  the  character 
of  their  own  teaching,  by  which  they  sought  to  displace  the  Gospel 
and  authority  of  the  Apostle.  It  was  given  attractively  'in  the 
wisdom  of  words'  and  '  in  excellency  of  speech.'  Yet  it  was  in 
truth  'a  handling  the  word  of  God  deceitfully,'  II  Cor.  4,  2,  and  a 
making  merchandise  of  it,  2,  17.  For  they  use  it  in  11,  12  as  an 
occasion  of  gain,  by  demanding  support  as  apostles  of  Christ.  But 
the  dominating  motive  of  Paul's  opposition  to  it  was  his  realization 
that  it  would  inevitably  issue  in  a  complete  perversion  of  his 
gospel.  It  is  indeed  in  no  small  measure  owing  to  his  rebuttal  of  it, 
that  we  possess  the  record  of  many  characteristic  features  of  the 
Apostle's  teaching.  The  difficulty  in  presenting  a  positive  con- 
struction of  their  teaching  arises  from  their  method  of  propaganda. 
For  they  do  not  appear  to  have  begun  this  openly  in  the  public 
assemblies,  but  to  have  insinuated  their  tenets  in  special  groups. 
Paul's  informants  therefore  have  not  yet  full  knowledge  of  the 
formative  principles  and  ultimate  issues  of  the  movement.  In  our 
view  of  the  reference  to  them  in  the  Thessalonian  Epistles,  he  had 
already  some  acquaintance  with  the  personnel  of  the  errorists; 
and  had  begun  to  discern  the  nature  of  their  teaching.  But  in  the 
Corinthian  Epistles,  with  increasing  knowledge  of  their  position, 
he  attacks  it  with  increasing  definiteness;  and  at  length  in  Romans 
we  find  his  still  more  definite  recognition  and  confutation  of  their 
principles,  based  on  the  knowledge  of  it  gained  in  his  three  months' 
residence  in  Corinth  itself.  The  attempt  to  reconstruct  their 
teaching  is  besides  made  further  difficult  by  the  fact  that  the 
Apostle  is  combatting  men  who  profess  not  to  be  deniers  of  his 
own  doctrines,  but  to  be  presenting  them  in  their  fullness  and  conse- 
quences in  contrast  to  his  own  immature  and  merely  fleshly  com- 
prehension of  them.  Hence  in  his  polemic,  he  cannot  always 
employ  categorical  contradictions  of  their  premises;  and  we  are 
compelled  to  recognize  what  were  their  positions  from  his  exposure 
of  their  specious  developments  and  misapplications  of  his  own 
principles,  issuing  in  immorality  and  denials  of  the  essential  truths 
of  the  Gospel.  We  can  nevertheless  discern  the  following  con- 
trolling outlines  of  their  doctrinal  system. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  237 

Since  the  most  definite  doctrinal  discussion  of  the  opposition  in 
Corinth  is  in  regard  to  the  denial  of  a  general  resurrection,  we  may- 
conclude  that  this  is  the  initial  and  outspoken  tenet  of  the  errorists, 
and  the  entering  wedge  of  their  propaganda.  They  held  indeed,  as 
did  also  gnostic  sects  at  the  close  of  the  first  century,  the  Apostolic 
tradition  of  Jesus'  resurrection,  I  Cor.  15,  4.  But  in  view  of 
vs.  35,  they  probably  held  it  with  reservations  similar  to  those  of 
the  Ophitic  gnostics  in  Irenaeus,  Adv.  Haer.  1.30.  13  f.  who 
taught  that  the  heavenly  Christ  raised  up  both  the  psychic  and 
spiritual  parts  of  Jesus,  but  sent  the  mundane  part  back  again  into 
the  world. ^^  They  could  also  profess  belief  in  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead;  but  again  with  such  reservations  as  were  made  by  similar 
heretics  in  Justin,  Trypho,  c.  80,  who  say  there  is  no  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  but  immediately  at  their  death  their  souls  are  taken  up 
into  heaven.  In  this  sense  the  dead  are  raised  to  immortal  life; 
but  they  have  no  avaaraais,  no  'rising  again,'  cp.  Luke  2,  34,  in  res- 
urrection bodies  at  the  Parousia.  This  position  appears  in  the 
twofold  question  of  I  Cor.  15,  35.  In  connection  it  may  be  with 
what  was  possibly  a  topic  in  the  primitive  catechetical  instruction: 
TTcpt  Tcov  veKpS)v  6tl  eyeipovTai,  cp.  Mark.  12,  26,  with  the 
Lukan  parallel  and  the  forms  of  introducing  topics  and  their  dis- 
cussion in  Justin's  apology,  its  first  question  ttws  eyeipovTai  is 
parried  with  'but  irolco  aioiiaTi  epxovrai.*  The  rest  of  the  chapter 
in  rebuttal  of  this  objection  is  concerned  solely  with  the  glorified 
resurrection  body  and  its  coming  when  the  Advent  trumpet  shall 
sound.  Their  denial  of  this  could  rest  not  only  on  Paul's  acknowl- 
edgment, vs.  50,  that  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  but  also  on  his  own  teaching  as  in  Rom.  6  of  the  spiritual 
resurrection  in  baptism,  with  its  accompanying  gift  of  the  indwell- 
ling  Spirit.  But  instead  of  regarding  this  gift  as  but  the  first 
fruits,  Rom.  8,  23,  as  only  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance,  II  Cor. 
1,  22;  Ephes.  1,  13  f.,  and  of  our  being  clothed  upon  with  our  house 
from  heaven  when  mortality  shall  have  been  swallowed  up  of  life, 
II  Cor.  5,  2  ff.;  they  boasted  that  they  were  already  fully  spiritual; 
already  enjoying  the  full  blessings  of  the  messianic  age;  already 
reigning  in  the  Kingdom  apart  from  Paul  and  his  followers,  I  Cor. 

"  Misisse  desuper  virtutem  quandam  in  eum,  quae  excitavit  eum  in  corpore 
quod  et  corpus  animale  et  spirituale  vocant;  mimdalia  enim  remisisse  eum  in 
mundo.    Cp.  the  related  Greek  terms  in  I  Cor.  15,  45-47. 


238    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

4,  8.  For  them  as  in  II  Thess.  2,  2,  the  Day  of  the  Lord  was 
already  come. 

This  fundamental  tenet  necessarily  affects  their  whole  con- 
ception of  Christian  doctrine  and  life.  It  sets  aside  the  primitive 
eschatology  of  Christ's  Parousia  in  glory,  the  general  resurrection 
and  world-judgment.  Christian  morality  is  thereby  deprived  of 
the  inspiration  of  Christian  hope  for  those  who  in  Rom.  2,  7,  by 
patient  continuance  in  well-doing  still  seek  for  glory,  honor  and 
immortality.  It  is  equally  ominous  for  interest  in  the  ethical 
teaching  of  Christ  delivered  in  the  Oral  Gospel  and  in  the  cate- 
chetical instruction. 

For  in  the  sphere  of  morals,  the  boast  of  full  possession  of  the 
eschatological  blessing  of  the  Spirit  led  to  perversion  of  the  Pauline 
doctrine  of  the  Spirit.  He  proclained  without  reservation  that 
the  gift  of  the  Spirit  was  essentially  the  life  of  freedom:  where 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty.  Yet  while  with  Paul, 
Rom.  8,  2  ff.,  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  frees  us  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death,  and  as  an  inner  fountain  of  moral  illumina- 
tion and  energy  accomplishes  the  righteousness  demanded  by 
the  law,  that  Spirit  was  to  his  Corinthian  opponents,  subjective 
freedom  from  all  external  authority:  be  it  of  moral  law  and  customs, 
of  Apostolic  tradition  or  Church  discipHne.  The  evidences  of 
this  run  throughout  both  Epistles.  They  are  libertines  on  the 
principles  of  antinomianism,  cf.  I  Cor.  6,  9  ff.;  10,  6  ff.;  II  Cor. 
12,  21,  because  they  are  not  under  law  but  grace.  It  would  very 
reasonably  be  the  women  converts  of  these  errorists  who  asserted 
their  freedom  by  self-emancipation  from  the  social  customs  ex- 
pressive of  due  subordination  in  family  life  and  in  public  worship. 
The  recurring  claims  of  Apostolic  authority,  the  references  to  the 
customs  of  the  churches  of  God,  the  denunciations  of  disorders  in 
the  worship  and  the  direct  polemics  against  the  spiritual  boasts 
of  the  errorists,  all  point  to  the  fact  that  the  false  apostles  and 
their  adherents  repudiated  not  only  Paul's  Apostolic  position  but 
all  official  and  corporate  authority  in  the  Church's  ministry  of 
teaching,  discipline  and  worship. 

We  can  thus  construct  with  reasonable  clearness  the  trend  of 
their  teaching  as  it  affects  Christian  hope  and  Christian  love  as  the 
fulfilling  of  all  law.  But  we  are  not  yet  so  clearly  informed,  as 
we  are  in  later  Epistles,  as  to  their  doctrinal  positions  concerning 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  239 

the  Christian  faith;  and  especially  in  regard  to  their  doctrine  of 
God  and  his  relations  to  the  universe,  and  of  the  Person  and 
work  of  Christ.  This  very  probably  was  at  first  an  esoteric  por- 
tion of  their  system,  reserved  for  their  initiates.  Paul  seems  only 
gradually  to  have  learned  of  it;  and  would  not  in  any  case  be  dis- 
posed to  disseminate  by  direct  citations,  false  teachings  not 
generally  advertised.  Yet  throughout  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  Corinthians  and  Romans  we  suddenly  meet  with  em- 
phatic statements  summarizing  his  own  teachings  on  these  sub- 
jects and  revealing  his  increasing  realization  that  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  the  errorists  are  in  direct  opposition  to  his  own. 

If  their  system  already  contained  any  features  of  the  second- 
century  gnostic  cosmogonies  having  recourse  to  a  demiurge  or  to  a 
series  of  mediating  emanations,  as  the  outcome  of  their  theory  of 
evil  resting  on  a  dualism  of  the  world  of  matter  and  divine  spirit, 
it  may  have  been  glanced  at  and  in  any  event  it  was  guarded 
against  by  the  statements:  the  universe  is  ck  deov,  I  Cor.  11,  12; 
II  Cor.  5,  18;  and  fuller  in  Rom.  11,  36,  €$  ai^roO  Kal  6t*  auroO  Kal 
els  avrdv  to.  iravTa;  and  most  definitely,  I  Cor.  8,  6,  to  us  there  is 
one  God  the  Father  e^  ov  ra  irh.vra  koX  rj^jiels  ds  avrbp,  and  one 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  5t*  ov  ra  Tavra  Kal  rj^els  5t'  avTov.  Col.  1,  16, 
written  some  five  years  later,  is  recognized  to  be  directed  against 
a  gnostic  theory;  and  it  is  simply  a  more  explicit  statement  of 
creation  by,  in  and  unto  Christ,  already  made  in  the  preceding 
passage  in  I  Cor. 

Having  adopted  the  view  that  they  are  specially  referred  to  in 
I  Cor.  1-4,  we  observe  that  their  rejection  of  the  Gospel  of  re- 
demption by  Christ's  death  is  now  recognized  by  the  Apostle. 
The  word  of  the  Cross  is  to  them  as  well  as  to  unbelievers  not,  as 
to  the  Judaizers,  to  be  supplemented  by  legalism;  but  I  Cor.  1, 
18,  it  is  foolishness  and  weakness.  Hence,  his  renewed  emphasis 
upon  it  as  the  heart  of  his  Gospel.  He  determined  upon  coming 
to  the  Corinthians,  not  to  know  anything  among  them  save  Jesus 
Christ  and  him  crucified;  since  1,  18  ff.  the  word  of  the  Cross  is 
the  power  and  wisdom  of  God,  unto  salvation,  Rom.  1,  16.  Christ 
was  made  imto  us  not  only  wisdom,  as  the  errorists  preach,  but 
at  the  same  time  righteousness  and  consecration  which  we  share 
in  our  union  with  him.  And  all  this  because  1,  30  he  was  made 
unto  us  redemption.    Rejection  of  the  atoning  life  and  death  of 


240    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  human  Jesus,  points  in  connection  with  the  boast  of  redemp- 
tion in  the  possession  of  the  Spirit  of  the  exalted  Christ,  to  the 
probable  source  of  their  false  teaching  in  some  perverted  view  of 
the  relation  of  the  heavenly  Christ  to  the  earthly  Jesus.  This 
would  as  well  involve  questions  concerning  the  preexistence  and 
incarnation  of  Christ.  Whatever  they  may  have  been,  they  were 
doubtless  highly  speculative  and,  as  suggested,  reserved  for  the 
initiated.  Yet  a  number  of  christological  assertions  suddenly 
appearing  in  the  polemical  sections  could  be  occasioned  by  Paul's 
growing  acquaintance  with  their  concealed  teaching. 

In  his  controversy  with  them  concerning  the  resurrection  we 
have  statements  significantly  emphasizing  the  relation  of  our 
Lord's  humanity  to  redemption.  Since  by  man  came  death  whose 
sting  is  sin,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  I  Cor. 
15,  21.  And  this  man  is  the  Christ  of  the  preceding  verse  and  is 
the  second,  last  Adam  and  head  of  humanity  of  the  following  verse 
and  of  the  Two  Adams  section,  vss.  45  ff.  He  is  the  Adam  who  is 
both  a  life-giving  Spirit  and  is  the  Second  Man,  from  heaven. 
In  the  parallel  in  Rom.  5,  12  if.,  as  Second  Adam  he  is  definitely 
named  as  'the  one  man  Jesus  Christ.'  So  real  is  his  humanity 
that  the  Christ  though  he  knew  no  sin  was  made  to  be  sin  on  our 
behalf,  that  we  might  become  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him, 
II  Cor.  5,  21 ;  and  so  complete  is  the  union  that  in  I  Cor.  2,  8,  Paul 
can  speak  of  the  crucifixion  of  the  Lord  of  glory.  Specifically  is 
redemptive  significance  claimed  for  his  human  experiences  of 
sufferings  and  death,  and  notably  in  the  passages  of  polemic. 
In  I  Cor.  15,  3,  it  is  the  Christ  who  died  for  our  sins  and  in  II  Cor. 
5,  14,  died  for  all.  The  death  proclaimed  in  the  Eucharist,  I  Cor. 
11,  26,  is  the  death  of  the  Lord.  If  Paul  bears  about,  II  Cor.  4, 
10  ff.,  the  dying  of  Jesus,  it  is  in  order  that  the  life  also,  i.  e.,  of 
the^  exalted  Jesus  may  be  manifested  in  his  body.  Guarding 
against[  denials  or  subtle  perversions  of  the  truth  of  the  incar- 
nation, Paul  affirms  when  contrasting  his  preaching  with  that  of 
the  errorists  in  II  Cor.  4,  1-6,  that  the  Christ  Jesus  Lord  whom 
he  preaches  is  the  elK^iv,  *tlfe  perfect  image,  the  visible  representa- 
tion and  manifestation  of  the  unseen  God.'  The  use  of  the  same 
term  in  Col.  1,  15,  is  recognized  by  Lightfoot  as  directed  against 
heretical  teaching  in  support  of  the  true  doctrine  of  Christ  as  the 
eternal  Logos.      The  Corinthians  already  know  the  Apostle's 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  241 

teaching,  II  Cor.  8,  9,  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  though  he  was 
rich  ^in  the  glory  of  his  heavenly  state'  became  poor,  'when  he 
descended  into  the  poverty  of  his  earthly  career';  so  Meyer  and 
B.  Weiss  in  opposition  to  Heinrici.  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  to  himself,  II  Cor.  5,  19;  and  the  Christ  Jesus  preached 
by  Paul,  is  Son  of  God,  II  Cor.  1,  19. 

In  accordance  with  these  indications  of  pointed  reiterations  of 
the  Apostolic  teaching  of  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  the  Christ  and  of 
Christ  to  man  and  to  God,  are  the  probably  intentional  uses  of 
the  human  name  Jesus  in  various  combinations  with  statements 
concerning  the  exalted  Lord  ^^  Instructive  for  his  choice  of  titles 
and  for  their  combinations  are  his  two  sudden  uses  of  anathema 
in  connection  with  them.  In  I  Cor.  12,  3,  he  introduces  the  section 
concerning  the  abuse  of  boasted  spiritual  gifts,  with  the  declaration 
that  no  man  speaking  in  the  Spirit  of  God  says  Anathema  Jesus; 
while  the  confession  Kurios  Jesus  is  a  mark  of  possession  of  the 
Spirit.  We  find  the  same  rule  later  in  I  John  4,  2  f.,  in  reference 
to  gnostic  errors.  The  statement  therefore  points  to  a  concrete 
denial  by  some  professing  Christians  at  Corinth  of  Jesus  as  Lord; 
and  more  definitely  to  their  repudiation  of  his  real  union  as  hu- 
man, with  the  heavenly  Christ  and  Kurios.  Paul  at  the  outset 
deliberately  refuses  to  discuss  any  claim  of  spiritual  gifts  which 
is  not  founded  on  this  initial  evidence  of  possession  of  the  Spirit. 
No  other  allusion  is  justified.  *  Anathema  Jesus,'  as  assimied  here 
to  be  uttered  by  one  claiming  to  speak  in  the  Spirit  of  God,  cannot 
be  denunciation  by  a  blasphemous  heathen  or  by  a  Jew;  nor  can 
it  be  the  utterance  of  a  Judaizer  or  of  any  approved  believer.  A 
sufficient  clue  to  the  occasion  and  character  of  the  anathema  has 
already  been  suggested  in  I  Cor.  1,  13.  There,  immediately  after 
the  claim  '  I  am  of  Christ 'is  the  declaration:  the  Christ  has  been 
divided. ^^    In  such  division  'those  of  Christ'  can  be  conceived, 

^"  In  the  statistics  and  discussion  of  Paul's  use  of  the  names  of  Christ  in 
Feine,  Jesvs  Christ  und  Panlus,  p.  21  fif.,  the  name  'Jesus'  alone  appears  only 
seven  times  in  I  and  II  Cor.;  all  of  them  in  three  polemical  sections:  I  Cor.  12, 
3  f.,  II  Cor.  4,  5.10,  and  11, 4.  Six  of  these  uses  are  accompanied  with  references 
to  his  exalted  state;  the  other  use  in  11,  4  being  connected  with  a  reference 
to  reception  of  the  Spirit. 

"  So  Meyer.  While  /X17  could  be  omitted  in  a  question  of  surprise,  the  text 
in  fact  indicates  that  the  interrogative  sentence  is  intended  to  begin  with  the 
jJL^  introducing  the  next  words.    If  we  are  to  take  seriously  Zahn's  argument 


242    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

cp.  I  John  4,  2,  as  confessing  the  heavenly  Christ  alone  as  Lord 
and  rejecting  the  separated  Jesus  as  abandoned  by  the  Christ  to 
his  death  upon  the  Cross.  The  anathema  may  be  an  exploitation 
as  in  later  Docetic  systems  of  the  words  on  the  Cross:  My  God, 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me.^* 

In  some  relation  to  this  first  anathema  passage  is  the  auto- 
graph preface  to  the  closing  salutation,  I  Cor.  16,  23:  if  any  man 
loves  not  the  Lord,  let  him  be  anathema.  Again  it  is  incredible 
that  he  should  thus  refer  to  unbelieving  Jews,  cp.  Rom.  10,  1; 
or  to  heathen,  cp.  II  Cor.  5,  14.19;  or  to  Judaizers,  who  could 
not  be  described  as  not  loving  the  Lord,  and  who  themselves  use 
in  their  worship  the  watchword  Maranatha,  *our  Lord  comes' 
or  as  in  Rev.  22,  20,  'Come  Lord  Jesus,'  and  who  in  their  Euchar- 
ists proclaim  the  Lord's  death  till  he  comes.  The  anathema  would 
be  seen  at  once  to  have  the  force  of  a  direct  retort  on  those  who 
say  Anathema  Jesus,  if  the  reading  of  the  Textus  receptus  were 
retained  on  the  authority  of  the  second  corrector  of  the  Sinaitic 
manuscript,  of  the  manuscripts  C,  D,  etc.;  Loves  not  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  But  with  our  critical  texts,  it  may  still  be  so  under- 
stood; since  the  Lord  is  'the  Lord  Jesus'  of  the  next  statement, 
and  is  the  'Christ  Jesus'  which  is  the  Epistle's  final  word.  This 
closing  verse  24,  my  love  be  with  you  all  in  Christ  Jesus,  indicates 
the  anathematized  'any  man'  as  distinct  from  the  general  body 
of  the  Corinthian  Church.  The  anathema  could  therefore  most 
fittingly  fall  on  those  of  Christ,  who  divide  Christ;  who  affirm 

that  firi  is  omitted  to  avoid  an  imitation  of  the  bleating  of  a  goat  in  /x')  M^M^" 
ptorai,  which  of  course  both  the  contemporary  vowel  sounds  and  accent  in- 
tonation make  impossible,  we  find  in  Rom.  9,  20,  a  far  better  imitation  which, 
however,  is  not  avoided. 

"  The  words  as  reported  in  the  Docetic  Gospel  of  Peter,  §  5,  are:  'And  the 
Lord  cried  out  saying,  My  power,  my  power,  thou  hast  forsaken  me.  And 
when  he  had  said  this  he  was  taken  up.'  In  T^^e  Gospel  according  to  Peter  and 
the  Revelation  of  Peter,  edited  by  J.  A.  Robinson  and  M.  R.  James,  1892,  Rob- 
inson points  out,  p.  21,  the  Docetic  'perversion  of  our  Lord's  quotation  from 
Ps.  22,  1,  in  this  description  of  'the  power'  so  often  emphasized  in  Luke  in 
connection  with  the  person  of  our  Lord,  as  forsaking  him:  the  divine  Christ 
is  taken  up,  the  human  Christ  remains  on  the  Cross;  Eli  being  rendered  as 
my  power.  He  also  adds  the  references  in  Irena;u8  to  such  claims,  the  use 
of  the  text  by  Valentinians,  and  suggests  a  parallel  in  the  interpolation  in 
cod.  Bobbiensis  at  Mk.  16,  4  as  closely  corresponding  to  the  ascension  of 
the  divine  Christ  from  the  Croee. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  243 

'Anathema| Jesus';  who  deny  that  the  Lord  comes;  who  unlike 
Paul,  cp.  II  Tim.  4,  8,  have  not  loved  his  appearing;  and  who  in 
both  Epistles  are  lacking  in  the  Christian  grace  of  love. 

Thus  opposed  to  Paul's  teaching  of  Christian  hope,  Christian 
love  as  the  perfect  fulfilhnent  of  the  law,  and  as  far  as  we  can 
judge,  opposed  to  the  fundamental  Apostolic  faith  in  God  in 
Christ  Jesus,  they  could  be  expected  to  be  opposed  also  to  the 
Apostle's  ideal  of  Christian  brotherhood  and  of  fellowship  in  the 
Christian  life,  worship  and  institutions.  And  in  fact  both  the 
opening  and  closing  words  of  the  correspondence,  I  Cor.  1,  10  and 
II  Cor.  13,  11,  sum  up  his  controUing  anxiety  regarding  the  danger 
of  dissensions  and  rupture  of  fellowship  in  the  one  body  and  temple 
of  the  Church.  Apart  from  a  general  tendency  to  the  sins  of  strife 
and  faction  Usted  in  II  Cor.  13,  20,  which  can  be  viewed  as  a  com- 
mon characteristic  of  Greek  communities,  there  are  clear  sug- 
gestions of  a  specially  divisive  element  in  the  Corinthian  church 
hfe.  For  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  sections  of  the  Epistles  con- 
cerned with  cultivating  unity  and  fellowship,  are  also  those  con- 
cerned with  the  special  oppositions  to  Paul's  teaching  and  author- 
ity which  we  have  been  presenting. 

Their  boast  to  be  of  Christ  involved  of  itself,  as  previously 
stated,  a  claim  of  independence  of  the  ministry  and  organization  of 
the  Church.  It  revealed  besides  a  spirit  of  division  based  on  their 
claim  of  the  more  excellent  spiritual  gifts.  Their  activity  in  this 
spirit  and  on  their  principles,  instead  of  edifying,  was  destructive 
of  all  the  unifying  bonds  of  a  common  faith,  life,  work,  worship. 
So  Paul  denounces  it  in  connection  with  his  opening  counter 
attack  on  their  repudiation  of  his  ministry  and  Gospel  of  redemp- 
tion by  Christ  and  him  crucified,  cp.  I  Cor.  3,  10-17.  Their 
antinomian  indifference  to  fornication  is  in  6,  12-20  a  pollution  of 
the  Body  of  Christ  and  of  the  temple  of  God.  The  Church's  danger 
from  associations  with  heathen  worship  arises  from  their  abuse  of 
freedom  resting  on  their  boasted  superior  gnosis.  Equally,  the 
threatened  breaches  in  Christian  fellowship  in  the  sacrament  of 
unity  itself,  could  most  reasonably  be  referred  to  their  separations, 
(TXto-jLiara,  with  their  adherents  in  the  agapae,  cp.  Jude  12,  and  to 
their  attitude  towards  the  Holy  Communion.  For  on  the  view  of 
their  principles  here  advocated,  we  cannot  understand  how  they 
could  sincerely  participate  in  a  sacrament  contradicting  their 


244    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

division  of  Christ'  in  their  docetic  denial  of  a  real  union  of  the 
suffering  Jesus  with  the  heavenly  Christ;  much  more  their  denial 
of  the  possibiUty  of  relation  between  the  spiritual  Christ  and  the 
inherently  evil  matter  of  bread  and  wine;  of  the  redemptive  power 
of  the  death  of  the  human  Jesus,  and  therefore  of  the  religious 
significance  of  any  symbols  of  it;  contradicting  also  their  denial  of 
Christ's  visible  return  to  which  this  sacrament  witnesses  until  he 
comes.  ^^ 

If  it  is  granted  that  such  teachers  were  present  in  Corinth,  it  is 
submitted  that  Paul's  two  references  to  the  sacrament  are  so  ex- 
pressed that  it  is  possible  to  regard  them  as  made  in  pointed  antag- 
onism to  essential  errors  of  these  teachers.  His  opening  statement 
in  the  first  reference,  in  contrast  to  their  divisive  spirit  claiming  an 
exclusive  position  by  reason  of  their  alleged  gifts,  is  an  emphatic 
affirmation,  I  Cor.  10,  15  ff.,  that  communion  with  Christ  in  the 
sacrament  is  also  a  realization  of  the  fellowship  of  believers  in  a 
corporate  unity  in  the  glorified  Christ;  since  in  vs.  17,  seeing  that 
there  is  one  bread,  we  who  are  many  are  one  body;  for  we  all 
partake  of  the  one  bread. ^°  In  contradiction  of  any  docetism  he 
speaks  here  of  the  body  and  blood  as  that  of  the  Christ;  and  next, 
11,  23  ff.,  states  that  the  sacrament  was  instituted  by  Kurios 
Jesus,  and  that  its  celebration  is  a  proclamation  of  the  death  of 
*the  Lord.'  Denial  or  perversion  of  his  death  as  redemptive,  is 
guarded  against  by  the  express  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus :  the  body 
broken  is  on  our  behalf;  the  cup  is  the  new  covenant  in  his  blood. 

'•Bousset,  Hauptprobleme  der  Gnosis,  p.  305:  "The  sacrament  of  the  Eu- 
charist seems  on  the  whole  to  have  been  largely  disregarded  in  gnostic  circles. 
A  ceremony  in  whose  center  stood  the  idea  of  *a  communion  of  the  blood  and 
body'  with  the  Redeemer,  must  have  seemed  ahen  and  unserviceable  to  the 
gnostic  sects  with  their  dualistic-ascetic  fundamental  conception.  Their 
celebration  of  it,  when  met  with,  seems  to  vary  widely  from  the  general 
Christian  Eucharist,"  as  is  shown  in  his  discussion,  pp.  305-313, ^and  in  W.  M. 
Groton,  The  Christian  Eucharist  and  the  Pagan  Cults:  The  Gnostic  Eucharist, 
pp.  35-63. 

«»This  marginal  rendering  of  the  R.  V.  is  also  that  given  by  Weizsttcker, 
Pfleiderer,  Juhcher,  Schmiedel.  R.  Schaefer,  Das  Herrenmahl,  1897,  pp.  352- 
359,  discusses  the  various  conceptions  of  the  'body'  in  this  verse;  and  con- 
cludes that  it  is  not  the  Church  nor  the  ethical  body  nor  the  mystical  body  of 
Christ,  but  the  spiritual  body  of  the  exalted  Christ.  He  grants,  however,  that 
the  unity  of  beUevers  as  a  result  of  communion  with  Christ  is  assumed  by 
Paul  as  self-evident. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  245 

^ Until  he  comes'  is  as  well  a  rejection  of  their  eschatological  teach- 
ing that  this  coming  has  already  taken  place.  If  they  still  attend 
and  communicate  '  unworthily ,'  not  discriminating  the  Eucharistic 
meal  from  other  food,  they  are  both  warned  and  are  called  upon 
to  examine  themselves;  and  this  both  in  the  context  and  in  view 
of  II  Cor.  13,  5,  may  refer  not  merely  to  their  spiritual  condition 
but  to  their  faith  in  the  significance  of  the  Eucharist  as  delivered 
from  the  Lord. 

Later  in  Jude,  which  many  conservative  critics  date  within  the 
next  decade  or  c.  66  a.  d.,  the  errorists  are  vs.  12  airikades, 
*  hidden  rocks  or  spots  in  your  agapae,  when  they  feast  with  you 
without  fear,  shepherds  that  feed  themselves';  and  in  13  ff.  as  in 
I  Cor.  11,  28,  are  destined  for  judgment.  In  19  these  psychics,  not 
having  the  Spirit,  are  those  who  make  separations.  The  similar 
false  teachers  in  I  John  2, 19,  went  out  from  us,  but  they  were  not  of 
us,  .  .  .  that  they  might  be  made  manifest  that  they  all  are  not  of 
us.  At  length  we  learn  in  Ignatius  of  errorists  who  conduct  their 
services  apart  from  the  one  Eucharist  of  the  bishop;  and  as  in 
I  Cor.  the  direct  interest  of  the  writer  is  in  their  destructive  in- 
fluences on  the  unity  and  fellowship  of  church  life  and  worship.^* 

The  disorders  in  worship  occasioned  by  the  errorists  in  the 
exercise  of  the  spiritual  gifts  which  they  claimed,  are  discussed, 
I  Cor.  12-14,  entirely  from  the  standpoint  of  love  as  the  essential 
and  universal  gift  for  the  common  profit  of  the  one  body  animated 
by  the  one  indwelling  Spirit.  In  13,  4-8,  this  love  is  the  opposite  of 
the  spirit  of  these  errorists;  and  in  chap.  15  their  denial  of  resur- 
rection would  make  vain  and  nugatory  all  preaching,  all  faith  and 
all  labor  in  the  service  of  the  Lord.  When  further  in  the  second 
Letter  he  can  rejoice  in  the  Church's  restored  fellowship  with 
himself  and  with  each  other  in  the  proofs  of  their  love,  8,  24, 
cp.  9,  13  ff.,  he  turns  in  the  last  four  chapters  to  relentless  assault 
upon  his  unmasked  enemies.  Yet  controlUng  this  Apologia  pro 
vita  sua,  is  his  interest  in  exposing  their  work  of  destruction  in 
beguiling,  as  the  serpent  beguiled  Eve,  the  Church  which  he  had 
espoused  as  a  pure  virgin  to  Christ.     In  direct  contrast  to  the 

"  Ignatius,  Ephes,  5,  1.  PhUad.  4,  1.  Smym.  8,  1;  9,  1.  See  the  discussions 
in  Liitgert,  Ami  und  Geist  im  Kampfy  pp.  124  flF.,  where  these  errorists  are 
held  to  be  in  the  same  connection  with  the  general  heretical  movement  as 
the  antichrists  of  I  John  and  the  separatists  in  Corinth. 


246    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

baleful  effect  of  their  teaching  and  aims,  is  his  own  zeal  for  its 
edification  in  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  expressed  in 
his  closing  appeals  and  assurance:  be  perfected,  be  strengthened,  be 
of  the  same  mind,  live  in  peace;  and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall 
be  with  you. 

An  additional  warrant  for  this  construction  of  the  data  of  the 
polemical  element  in  the  Corinthian  Epistles  as  pointing  to  a 
definite  propaganda  by  those  of  Christ,  is  that  all  the  features  we 
have  assigned  to  it  are  unified  by  their  boast  of  gnosis.  This  gnosis 
is  recognized  by  Paul  to  be  a  specifically  Christian  gift  and  mani- 
festation of  the  Spirit,  I  Cor.  1,  5;  12,  8.  As  throughout  the  New 
Testament,  it  is  not  a  product  of  human  speculation  in  contrast  to 
faith  and  practical  piety ;  nor  an  intellectual  interest  in  the  Gospel 
apart  from  the  devotion  of  feelings  and  emotions.  It  is  a  spiritual 
illumination  begun  at  conversion,  and  is  the  outgrowth  of  faith. 
Resting  upon  divine  revelation,  it  is  developed  in  our  union  with 
God  in  Christ  until  we  know  fully  even  as  also  we  have  been  fully 
known  by  God.^^  It  is  the  deepening  'apprehension  of  the  revela- 
tions and  activities  included  in  Christian  faith':  both  the  deep 
things  of  God  and  the  things  graciously  bestowed  upon  us  by  God ; 
the  mysteries  of  the  Kingdom  and  especially  its  eschatological 
mysteries.  And  further  it  is  an  application  of  this  developing 
illumination  in  all  the  relations  of  the  personal  life  of  faith.  As 
later  in  Ephes.  3,  14  ff.  so  in  I  Cor.  8,  3  and  chap.  13  this  spiritual 
gift  is  rooted  and  perfected  in  the  love  of  God. 

The  errorists  at  Corinth,  however,  boast  of  this  universal  Chris- 
tian gift  as  their  peculiar  endowment,  or  as  theirs  in  excelling 
measure;  and  more,  by  its  possession,  to  be  alone  the  spiritual,  the 
fully  mature,  the  perfect  Christians.  Hence  with  them,  gnosis, 
especially  in  their  conception  of  it,  is  the  essential  element  in 
religion.  Paul's  polemic,  therefore,  while  recognizing  gnosis  as  a 
principle  of  Christian  growth,  rests  on  his  denials  that  gnosis  is  the 
sole  and  fundamental  blessing  of  the  Gospel ;  and  that  they  in  fact 
possess  gnosis.  They  are  therefore  not  spiritual;  and  their  teach- 
ings and  activities  based  on  their  merely  human  wisdom  and 
speculations  have  no  warrant,  as  they  claim,  of  wisdom  specially 
revealed  to  them.    The  climax  of  the  Apostle's  Hymn  of  Love  is 

**  See  the  fuller  discussion  of  the  character  of  gnosis  in  the  N.  T.  Epistles 
on  p.  394  ff.;  and  also  the  works  cited  on  p.  388,  note  20, 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  247 

that  the  essential  and  abiding  elements  in  the  Christian  life  are 
faith,  hope  and  love;  and  of  these  love  is  the  greatest,  as  being  the 
perfected  outgrowth  of  faith  and  the  animating  Kfe  of  hope.  All 
other  gifts  profit  solely  in  their  connections  with  the  triad  of 
Christian  graces.  Definitely  as  to  gnosis:  though  I  know  all 
mysteries  and  all  gnosis  and  have  not  love,  I  am  nothing.  And  yet 
we  know  only  in  part;  we  see  now  only  in  a  mirror,  ev  aivlyfxaTi. 
Temporary  also  is  this  partial  gift :  till  we  see  face  to  face.  In  the 
opening  prayers  of  all  the  four  Prison  Letters  five  years  later,  we 
recognize  again  both  his  interest  in  gnosis  and  also  his  subordina- 
tion of  its  function  in  the  development  of  the  Christian  personal- 
ity. It  is  the  love  of  the  Philippians  which  he  prays  may  abound  in 
the  definite  sphere  of  epignosis  and  all  ataSriaLs.  The  fellowship  of 
Philemon's  faith  is  to  become  effectual  in  the  epignosis  of  every 
good  thing  which  is  in  us  unto  Christ.  To  be  filled  with  epignosis 
of  God's  will  in  all  wisdom  and  spiritual  understanding,  is  in  his 
prayer  for  the  Colossians  not  an  end  in  itself  but  a  means  to  walk 
worthily  of  the  Lord ;  while  the  gifts  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in 
the  epignosis  of  the  Father  of  glory,  which  are  invoked  for  the 
Ephesians  are  to  promote  their  knowledge  of  the  Christian  hope. 
But  along  with  full  and  discriminating  recognition  of  the  gnostic 
element  in  the  development  of  Christian  life,  is  his  denial  that  what 
his  opponents  boast  of  is  really  Christian  gnosis.  While  in  I  and 
II  Cor.  he  do3s  not  directly  communicate  the  contents  and  system- 
atic construction  of  their  system,  he  refers  to  it  as  a  human  wisdom; 
as  that  of  the  rulers  of  this  world  who  are  coming  to  naught ;  as 
received  from  the  spirit  of  this  world  and  expressed  in  words  which 
human  wisdom  teaches,  I  Cor.  2, 6  f. ;  12.13.  Their  gnosis  is  in  truth 
d7^co(7taof  God,  15.34;  and  his  warfare  against  these  false  apostles 
and  ministers  of  Satan  is  in  II  Cor.  10,  4  ff .  for  the  casting  down  of 
their  fortress:  their  Xo7t(rjLiol  and  every  height  exalted  against 
the  gnosis  of  God;  and  for  bringing  every  vdrjfMa,  cp.  2,  11,  into 
captivity  to  the  obedience  of  Christ.  From  the  claim  of  such 
a  gnosis  viewed  as  the  essential  element  in  Christianity,  issued  the 
main  features  of  their  system  and  activities  which  we  have  at- 
tempted to  reconstruct.  It  led  naturally  to  arrogant  disparage- 
ment of  all  other  spiritual  gifts  as  in  I  Cor.  12,  and  to  their  ex- 
clusive claims  to  be  the  spiritual  and  perfect.  These  next  were 
manifested  both  in  a  spirit  of  separation  from  the  general  body  of 


248    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

converts  whom  they  viewed  as  immature,  psychic,  fleshly;  and 
also  in  a  spirit  of  harsh  domination  and  in  a  demand  for  recognition 
and  support,  II  Cor.  11,  20.  From  their  gnosis  was  derived,  I  Cor. 
8-10,  their  perverted  conception  of  freedom  in  contrast  to  love's 
freedom  even  to  sacrifice  its  rights  for  the  profit  of  the  many.  This 
freedom  of  false  gnosis  concerning  the  relation  of  spirit  and  nature 
was  the  principle  of  their  antinomian  emancipation  from  the  moral 
law.  It  was  too  the  all-sufficiency  of  this  gnosis  which  emanci- 
pated them  from  all  other  external  authority  of  ApostoUc  minis- 
try, tradition  and  institutions.  Their  denial  of  the  Parousia  and 
future  consummation  of  the  Kingdom  rested  likewise  on  their 
present  possession  in  their  spiritual  enlightenment,  of  the  supreme 
messianic  blessings  which  to  others  were  still  objects  only  of  Chris- 
tian hope.  The  dualistic  element  of  their  gnosis  appearing  in  their 
denial  of  any  resurrection  body,  determines  their  rejection  of  a 
redemptive  death  upon  the  Cross.  And  it  would  leave  no  place 
for  a  real  union  of  the  spiritual  Christ  and  the  earthly  Jesus;  for  a 
heavenly  Christ  obedient  to  death,  yea  the  death  of  the  Cross.  A 
false  gnosis  moreover  already  assuming  its  possession  of  wisdom 
and  power  from  a  direct  subjective  divine  revelation,  would  find  no 
revelation  of  divine  power  in  a  Christ  crucified  in  weakness;  and  no 
wisdom  in  a  Cross  on  which  it  failed  to  recognize  the  supreme 
revelation  of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ,  which  passes  gnosis. 

These  results  of  an  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  controlling 
features  of  the  movement  in  Corinth  opposed  to  Paul,  thus  accord 
with  and  illuminate  the  indications  of  a  similar  propaganda  in  the 
earlier  Epistles  to  Thessalonica.  It  remains  for  us  to  inquire 
whether  any  support  for  our  construction  can  be  found  in  the  Epis- 
tle to  the  Romans,  written  in  Corinth  within  less  than  a  half  a  year 
after  the  Apostle's  intense  polemic  with  'those  of  Christ.' 

THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS 

Just  before  closing  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  Paul  warns  them 
against  the  influence  of  certain  false  teachers,  16,  17  ff.  They  are 
not  described  as  already  present  in  Rome,  or  if  so,  as  already 
operating  in  the  Church.  We  are  here  regarding  the  passage  and 
the  chapter  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
and  not  as  very  largely  held,  as  belonging  to  a  letter  to  Ephesus.-' 

"  The  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Ephesian  address  and  the  list  of  its  ad- 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  249 

After  the  commendation  of  Phcebe  and  the  greetings  to  friends  and 
loyal  churchworkers  in  Rome,  follows  in  17  ff.  a  contrasted  de- 
nunciation of  the  errorists.  The  sudden  change  of  tone  has  led 
R.  Scott,  Pauline  Epistles ,  p.  246,  to  regard  the  passage  as  'a 
manifest  interpolation'  of  Timothean  authorship.  Yet  the 
abruptness  of  this  denunciation  is  not  due  as  Sanday  and  Head- 
lam  plead,  p.  429,  Ho  zeal  and  earnestness  making  his  letters 
somewhat  formless'  or  leading  to  *  absence  of  regular  method.' 
For  we  find  such  juxtapositions  so  constantly  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment Epistles  as  to  suggest  a  custom;  and  possibly  a  custom 
related  also  to  some  definite  church  method  of  recognition  or 
rejection  of  strangers  seeking  communion  with  the  Church.  Thus 
we  find  the  commendatory  letters  for  Timothy,  Philippians  2,  19, 
and  for  Epaphroditus  2,  25,  immediately  followed  by  warnings 
against  the  intruding  evil  workers  and  enemies  of  the  cross  in  3, 
2-21.  I  Cor.  closes  with  commendations  and  greetings,  16,  15-21, 
upon  which  follows  the  anathema  on  his  opponents.  The  com- 
mendations of  Titus  and  the  brethren,  II  Cor.  8  and  9,  are  followed 
with  the  same  abruptness  as  Rom.  16,  17  by  four  chapters  of 
denunciation  of  the  Christ  party.  Galatians  closes  likewise  with 
sudden  renewed  denunciations  of  the  Judaizers,  6,  6-15,  and  a 
benediction  on  those  who  walk  by  Paul's  rule.  In  the  Pastorals, 
I  Tim.  closes  with  a  definite  warning  against  those  professing  the 
false  gnosis.  Titus  ends  with  a  direction  to  shun  after  two  ad- 
monitions a  man  that  causes  divisions  alperLKov,  and  that  as 
Titus  knows  is  one  who  is  perverted,  sinning  and  self-condemned. 
This  again  is  linked  with  Paul's  commendatory  note  in  favor  of 
the  four  fellow-workers  he  names.  His  last  letter  follows  the 
vocates  are  given  by  Moflfatt,  Introd.,  p.  134  and  H.  N.  T.,  209.  Among  those 
in  favor  of  the  Roman  destination  are  Lightfoot,  Hort,  Sanday-Headlam, 
Drummond;  Godet,  Jacquier;  Riggenbach,  Schlatter,  Zahn,  Heinrici,  Har- 
nack,  C.  Clemen.  Lake,  while  concluding  in  favor  of  the  Ephesian  hypothesis, 
recognizes  the  force  of  the  fact  that  16,  1-23  is  an  integral  part  of  all  the  MSS. 
of  the  Epistle  we  now  possess.  Spitta,  who  assigns  the  passage  to  a  later 
smaller  Letter  to  Rome  states  the  case  thus:  only  when  the  proof  is  produced 
that  vss.  3-16  cannot  belong  to  a  Roman  Letter,  can  we  approach  the  Ephe- 
sian hypothesis.  Harnack,  Z.  N.  T.  W.  1,  23  n.,  holds  that  *Zahn  has  proven 
anew  that  the  grounds  upon  which  it  is  supposed  to  be  necessary  to  remove 
chap.  16  from  Romans,  are  not  sufficient.'  Lietzmann  concludes  that  the 
difficulty  of  understanding  chap.  16  as  a  portion  of  Romans  is  not  so  great 
as  that  of  the  hypothesis  that  vss.  1-23  are  a  fragment  of  a  lost  letter. 


250    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

same  form:  it  too  closes  with  a  definite  warning  against  Alexander 
and  with  a  sorrowing  prayer  for  those  who  had  abandoned  him, 
II  Tim.  4,  14  ff.,  followed  by  his  greetings.  One  of  his  earliest 
Letters,  II  Thess.,  has  a  similar  form.  It  likewise  closes  in  3, 
6-15  with  a  denmiciatory  charge  against  his  opponents,  which  is 
abruptly  joined  at  vs.  16  with  his  benediction  and  greeting.  In 
particular  in  vs.  14  the  Church  is  to  'note'  the  man  disobeying 
the  charge  and  to  have  no  company  with  him.  Finally,  the  latest 
New  Testament  Letters  are  framed  on  the  model  of  a  commenda- 
tory letter.  II  John  1-6  first  commends  the  Church  addressed; 
next,  vss.  7-11,  it  denounces  gnostic  teachers  and  warns  against 
their  reception  into  the  Church  and  even  against  offering  them 
the  Christian  salutation.  Ill  John  1-8  commends  Gaius  for  his 
Christian  life  and  for  his  acceptance  of  the  commendatory  letters 
sent  to  him;  in  9-11  it  denoimces  the  opposition  and  conduct  of 
Diotrephes  in  his  repudiation  of  the  writer  and  his  refusal  to 
accept  commendatory  letters  sent  to  him,  such  as  in  vs.  12  is  here 
given  to  Demetrius. 

There  is,  therefore,  nothing  unusual  in  this  collocation  of  de- 
nunciation in  Rom.  16,  17  ff.  with  the  preceding  commendations 
and  greetings,  which  are  normal  features  of  the  usual  rhetorical 
framework  of  a  Pauline  letter.  Against  the  more  serious  criticism 
that  both  greetings  and  warnings  were  sent  not  to  Rome  but 
Ephesus,  we  may  repeat  Godet's  remark  that  it  is  inconceivable 
that  Paul  would  address  our  passage  to  a  Church  wherein  he  had 
just  spent  three  years,  and  where  he  had  written  I  Cor.,  and 
which  must,  therefore,  already  know  of  the  Corinthian  opposition 
and  have  been  warned  long  since  by  him  against  such  adversaries. 
To  this  may  be  added  that  we  have  in  Acts  20,  17  ff.  Luke's  report 
of  a  similar  warning  to  the  presbyter-bishops  of  Ephesus,  given 
a  few  weeks  after  the  warning  of  Rom.  16,  17.  Comparing  them 
we  can  observe  that  they  point  to  different  groups  of  hearers:  in 
the  Ephesian  group,  to  those  already  acquainted  with  the  opposing 
movement;  in  Rom.  16  to  those  needing  a  description  of  its 
dominant  features.  In  Acts  20  he  first  vindicates  as  in  I  and  II 
Cor.  and  with  an  appeal  to  their  own  knowledge,  the  completeness 
of  his  Gospel  ministry,  vss.  18-27,  both  in  his  initial  preaching 
and  also  in  his  communication  of  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  On 
the  foundation  of  this  ministry  the  Ephesian  clergy  are  charged 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  251 

to  shepherd  the  Church  of  God.  And  the  statement  that  it  was 
purchased  by  his  blood,  his  own,  receives  illumination  from  his 
emphasis,  known  to  them  in  any  case  from  his  Corinthian  con- 
troversy, upon  the  Cross  and  blood  of  Christ.^'*  Definitely,  they 
are  to  watch  both  against  the  entrance  of  grievous  wolves  and 
against  the  arising  from  among  themselves  of  errorists  whom  to 
his  Ephesian  hearers  already  instructed,  vs.  31,  he  need  not 
further  describe  than  as  men  not  sparing  the  flock;  as  speak- 
ing perverse  things,  cp.  Acts  13,  8. 10,  in  reference  to  Elymas,  to 
draw  away  disciples  after  them;  and  possibly  in  connection  with 
33-35,  as  demanding  financial  support  for  their  teachings.  But 
concerning  the  contents  and  methods  of  the  false  teaching  itself, 
there  is  no  need  to  warn  the  pastors  of  Ephesus.  Being  already 
instructed  and  having  in  memory  Paul's  three  years'  ministry  of 
admonition  among  them,  they  are  now  to  guard  against  the 
destructive  activity  of  the  false  teachers  in  the  flock  and  against 
their  attempt  to  cause  divisions.  In  contrast,  the  more  definite 
references,  as  will  be  shown,  to  the  teachings  and  methods  of  the 
errorists  in  Rom.  16,  point  to  the  fact  that  they  are  addressed 
not  to  these  instructed  Ephesian  Christians,  but  to  Romans  who 
as  yet  have  no  direct  acquaintance  with  the  movement  which  it 
could  be  rightly  anticipated  would  appear  among  them. 

Holding  that  the  warning  in  Rom.  16  was  sent  to  the  Christians 
in  Rome  we  can  further  regard  it  as  directed  against  a  possible 
intrusion  of  the  Corinthian  false  apostles  into  this  Church  loyal 
to  Pauline  principles.  The  reference  cannot  be  as  commonly 
asserted  to  Judaizing  opponents,  since  Paul  would  not  so  describe 

**  Hort,  A^.  T.  Appendix,  p.  99,  suggests  that  in  early  transcription  Tlou, 
whose  insertion  leaves  the  passage  free  from  difficulty  of  any  kind,  has  dropped 
out.  This  could  result  not  only  from  similarity  in  sight  and  sound  of  the 
fully  written  TOTIAIOTTIOT,  but  from  the  usually  abbreviated  form 
lAIOTTT.  This  conjectural  phrase  appears  in  a  somewhat  related  context, 
Rom.  8, 32: 5s  ye  tov  ih'iov  TloO  ovk  e^eicraro,  dXXa  vir^p  rfficov  TriiVTWV 
irapihoiKtv  avrbv.  It  accords  also  with  all  the  other  N.  T.  references 
to  blood  in  connection  with  redemption,  as  the  blood  of  Christ:  Rom.  3,  25;  5, 
9;  I  Cor.  10,  16;  11,  25.27;  Ephes.  1, 7;  I  John  1,  7  the  blood  of  Jesus  tov  viov 
airrov.  In  Rev.  5,  9  appears  the  same  thought  as  in  Acts  20,  28:  the  Lamb 
purchased  unto  God  men  of  every  tribe,  etc.,  iv  Tc^  atfiaTL  <TOV  and  made 
them  unto  Grod  a  kingdom;  cp.  also  7,  14  ff. 


252    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

them,  especially  as  slaves  to  their  own  belly.  Nor  to  the  '  strong ' 
Christians  of  chap.  14,  with  whom  he  identifies  himself,  15,  1, 
and  whom  the  weak,  14,  3,  are  not  to  judge,  for  God  has  received 
them.  Understood  as  pointing  to  the  Christ  party,  even  his 
compressed  description  of  them  reproduces  significantly  their 
most  prominent  features  as  we  have  recognized  them  in  the 
Corinthian  Epistles.  In  view  of  the  threatened  danger  to  the 
unity  and  fellowship  of  Church  life  which  would  be  the  ultimate 
issue  of  their  activity,  they  are  at  once  denounced  as  those  who 
cause  divisions:  such  as  have  appeared  at  the  Corinthian  agapae 
and  in  the  general  spirit  of  the  Corinthian  Church  life,  which 
were  the  definite  occasion,  I  Cor.  1,  10,  of  the  Corinthian  corre- 
spondence and  whose  removal  was,  II  Cor.  13, 11,  its  dominating 
purpose.  In  the  sphere  of  Christian  morals  they  furnish  occasion 
of  stumbling  within  and  without  the  Church,  cp.  I  Cor.  10,  32, 
as  the  abusers  of  spiritual  freedom  in  Corinth  were  recognized  to 
be  such  occasions  by  their  antinomian  libertinism.  For  here  too 
they  are  men  who  act  contrary  to  the  didache  the  Romans  learned 
at  their  conversion:  the  instruction  in  faith,  morals,  the  last  things 
and  the  Church  fellowship.  They  are  also  indicated  as  professing 
the  object  of  their  faith  to  be  our  exalted  Kurios  Christos,  in 
contrast  to  the  human  Jesus;  but  their  boast  of  service  of  the 
Christ  is  in  truth  a  selfish  and  sensual  service  of  their  own  belly, 
as  already  alluded  to  in  the  quotation  from  the  Christian  liber- 
tines, I  Cor.  6, 13,  and  as  later  asserted  of  the  same  class  of  errorists, 
Philippians  3,  19.  And  as  in  I  Thess.  2,  3  f.  and  I  Cor.  2,4;  II 
Cor.  11,  3,  cp.  also  the  indavoXoyia,  of  the  Colossian  heresy  2,  4, 
they  beguile  the  hearts  of  the  innocent  by  smooth  discourse  and 
flattering  speech.  This  persuasive  speech  may  even  be  teaching 
concerning  the  nature  of  gnosis,  based  upon  their  allegorical  ex- 
position of  the  Genesis  account  of  the  temptation  at  the  tree  of 
gnosis  of  good  and  evil.  For  his  own  closing  words  are  based 
upon  it;  and  they  may  like  II  Cor.  11,  3  be  a  retort,  turning  their 
own  weapons  against  them.  In  both  passages  the  Churches  are 
viewed  as  exposed  to  temptation  while  in  a  state  of  innocence. 
The  Corinthian  Church  is  compared  to  Eve.  Its  innocence  is 
stressed;  and  it  is  espoused  as  a  pure  virgin  to  Christ.  As  Eve 
was  deceived  by  the  serpent,  so  these  ministers  of  Satan  who 
fashions  himself  as  an  angel  of  light,  seek  to  corrupt  the  thoughts 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  253 

of  the  Corinthians  from  their  innocence:  their  simplicity  and 
purity  towards  Christ.  The  same  comparison  reappears  in 
Rom.  16,  18  ff.  In  their  widely  known  obedience  to  the  Gospel 
the  Roman  Christians  are  as  yet  aKaxot:  innocent  in  the  singleness 
and  purity  of  their  devotion  to  Christ.  The  intruders  may  seek 
to  'deceive'  them,  as  in  II  Cor.  11, 3  and  Gen.  3, 13,  by  the  smooth 
speaking  and  flattering  speech  of  Gen.  3,  4.5,  concerning  the 
tree,  Gen.2,9,TOveid€vaLypo}<rTdif  koXov  Kal  irovrjpov.^^  But  Paul 
aims  to  maintain  them  in  Christian  gnosis  vs.  19  as  wise  imto  the 
good  and  free  from  admixture  with  the  evil,  cp.  also  I  Cor.  14,  20. 
Summing  up  then  the  teaching  of  the  spurious  gnosis  as  a  work  of 
Satan,  as  in  II  Cor.  11,  13-15,  he  makes  a  further  allusion  to 
Gen.  3,  15:  the  God  of  peace  and  not  of  dKara<rra(rta,  Rom.  16, 17, 
and  I  Cor.  14,  33,  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet.  The  ad- 
dition ev  TOLx^t'  as  has  been  conjectured  by  Schultz,  has  probably 
also  a  reassuring  reference  to  Christ's  speeding  victory  at  his 
return  which  the  false  teachers  deny.  The  phrase  summarizes  and 
applies  constant  formulae  concerning  the  conflict  with  evil  ending 
with  the  Lord's  coming  ev  Tiix^t-  which  is  found  in  every  group  of 
New  Testament  writings. 

If  at  this  point  it  is  urged  that  these  characteristics  and  paral- 
lels may  reveal  the  references  to  be  in  Paul's  mind  to  his  Corin- 
thian opponents,  but  that  these  references  would  not  be  evident 
to  his  Roman  readers,  we  may  recall  the  presence  of  Aquila  and 
Prisca  to  furnish  the  needed  explanations.  And  if  further,  as  is 
frequently  asserted,  the  passage  is  thought  to  be  out  of  harmony 
with  an  Epistle  'so  completely  destitute  of  direct  controversy'; 
or  that  the  passage  of  mere  warning  furnishes  no  means  of  re- 
pelling the  deceptive  smooth  speaking,  we  may  next  notice  that 
the  readers  have  been  already  directly  forearmed  against  it  by 
the  Epistle  itself. 

Written  at  the  close  of  the  period  of  the  defense  and  confirma- 
tion of  the  Gospel  in  his  five  Epistles  to  Galatia,  Thessalonica  and 
Corinth,  and  while  facing  the  deadly  perils  of  his  Jerusalem  visit 
Rom.  15,  30  f.,  the  Apostle  finds  occasion  to  sum  up  his  controlling 

'^  This  Genesis  reference  is  a  better  clue  to  the  meaning  of  XP'O^'^^^^y'^^ 
and  ei;Xo7ta  than  the  traditional  quotation  from  Julius  Capitolinus  and  the 
passages  in  Wettstein. 


254    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

teachings  as  these  have  been  further  developed  and  applied  in  the 
preceding  controversies,  and  to  send  them  to  Rome,  to  serve  as  it 
might  prove  to  be,  in  B.  Weiss's  phrase,  Introd.,  §  22.7,  as  his 
bequest  and  testament  to  that  Church  and  in  it  to  Christendom 
in  general.  For  here  was  a  Church  which  in  its  as  yet  imperfect 
organization  needed  his  teachings;  which  would  be  able  to  utilize 
it  for  the  extension  of  the  Gospel;  and  to  which  he  had  long  been 
hoping  to  deliver  it  in  person.  Such  an  aim,  to  establish  them 
in  his  Gospel  on  the  basis  of  the  results  of  his  apology  and  polemic 
against  its  opponents,  we  find  clearly  reflected  in  the  structure 
of  the  Epistle.  At  one  point  indeed,  3,  27-31,  the  swift  questions 
recall  respectively  the  twenty  years  of  conflict  with  Jewish  re- 
jection of  the  universalism  preached  in  his  Gospel;  the  ten  years 
of  Judaistic  opposition  to  salvation  by  grace  instead  of  legalism; 
and  the  five  or  more  years  of  antinomian  perversion  of  the  free- 
dom of  faith.  In  a  broad  survey  of  his  Apologia  of  his  Gospel,  the 
first  two  chapters  sum  up  his  teaching  of  the  need  of  a  divine 
justification  in  view  of  the  coming  judgment  of  Gentile  and  Jew 
for  their  sin,  by  the  one  God,  and  in  accordance  with  his  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel,  which  for  the  heathen  began  with  the  Jewish 
apologetic,  as  appears  in  the  framework  of  this  opening  section. 
The  next  chapters,  3-5,  11,  summarize  his  teaching  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  as  it  was  wrought  out  in  the  Judaistic  controversy. 
Chapters  9-11  attest  against  the  ignorant  zeal  of  Jewish  attacks 
that  justification  by  faith  is  in  harmony  with  the  eternal  redeem- 
ing purpose  of  God  which  is  realized  by  the  method  of  election. 

Of  the  doctrinal  portion  of  the  Epistle  there  remain  the  chap- 
ters 5,  12-8,  39.  It  is  the  exegetical  tradition  based  on  dogmatic 
interest,  to  regard  chaps.  6-8  as  treating  of  sanctification  as  the 
corollary  to  the  justification  presented  in  the  preceding  three 
chapters.  But  although  the  section  contains  much  characteristic 
teaching  concerning  'progressive  righteousness'  resting  on  mystic 
union  with  the  risen  Christ,  Sanday-Headlam,  p.  38,  this  is  not 
the  unifying  theme.  In  this  section  as  in  the  whole  Letter  his 
aim  is  the  estabUshment  of  the  readers  in  the  hfe  of  justification. 
And  the  definite  purpose  of  these  chapters  becomes  clear  when 
we  view  them  as  the  summing  up  for  this  estabUshment  of  Roman 
Christians,  of  his  experience  and  teachings  in  his  remaining  con- 
troversy with  the  pneumatic  and  gnostic  errorists  in  Thessa- 


ITHE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  255 

lonica  and  Corinth,  as  it  bears  upon  his  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith  in  the  incarnate,  atoning  and  glorii&ed  Redeemer. 

This  involves  a  refutation  of  their  perversion  of  the  freedom 
of  the  Gospel  by  antinomian  hbertinism  and  boasts  of  perfection 
by  gnosis:  turning  the  grace  of  God  into  lasciviousness;  sinning 
that  grace  may  abound;  spuming  the  holy  Law  as  being  itself 
sin.  This  refutation  in  chaps.  6  and  7,  including  the  resulting 
exhortations  to  walk  in  newness  of  life,  is  founded  on  the  Two 
Adams  section  5,  12  ff.,  in  which  he  develops  for  the  Romans  his 
arguments  against  the  Corinthian  deniers  of  Christ^s  Parousia 
and  the  general  resurrection,  whose  libertinism  and  boasts  of 
gnosis  are  also  alluded  to  in  I  Cor.  15, 33  f .  In  I  Cor.  he  had  begun 
his  discussion  of  the  eschatological  denial  with  a  reference  to  the 
Two  Adams,  the  heads  of  humanity  facing  respectively  death  and 
life  eternal.  In  the  climax,  vss.  55  ff.,  he  had  correlated  death, 
sin  and  law:  sin,  the  sting  of  death,  law  the  strength  of  sin;  and 
the  triple  links  of  the  series  were  contrasted  with  the  victory  in 
the  Second  Adam,  which,  therefore,  includes  freedom  from  legal- 
ism, from  the  power  of  sin  and  from  the  sting  of  death.^^ 

It  is  these  compressed  statements  which  are  now  developed  in 
Rom.  5,  12  ff.,  and  with  the  same  purpose  of  estabUshing  his 
readers  against  the  intrusion  of  the  Corinthian  errorists.  In  the 
heart  of  the  argument  in  Rom.,  vs.  17  as  in  I  Cor.,  is  seen  the 
controlUng  interest  in  the  redeeming  and  glorifying  power  of 
Christ's  resurrection  Ufe:  as  death  reigned  by  the  sin  of  the  one 
man,  much  more  shall  all  in  Christ  'reign  in  Ufe'  by  the  one,  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  thus  the  first  fruits  of  them  who  are  fallen  asleep. 
Yet  this  universal  offer  of  eternal  life  in  Christ  can  only  be  re- 
ceived by  those  who  also  receive  the  abundance  of  grace  and  the 
gift  of  righteousness,  unto  justification  which  is  life,  vs.  18.  This 
freedom  from  the  sting  of  death  by  the  union  of  the  justified  be- 
liever with  the  risen  Christ  is  thus  at  the  same  time  a  freedom 
from  sin  and  its  power,  manifested  in  a  life  of  righteousness  in 
contrast  to  the  false  apostles'  indifference  to  moraUty.  With 
vs.  20,  in  exphcation  of  his  statement  in  I  Cor.  that  the  power  of 
Sin  is  the  Law,  he  meets  the  abuse  of  the  teaching  of  freedom  and 

^  Moffatt  is  in  agreement  with  the  view  of  the  scholars  cited  by  him,  H.  N.  T. 
628  and  Introd.  114,  that  I  Cor.  15,  56  is  an  unauthentic  and  inappropriate 
interpolation  of  an  exegetical  marginal  gloss. 


256    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

of  the  peace  of  law  in  the  reUgion  of  Spirit,  by  a  renewal  of  his 
fundamental  teaching,  Gal.  3,  19  ff.,  that  the  Law  is  temporary; 
yet  is  only  transcended,  not  by  antinomian  independence  of  all 
authority  but  by  the  royal  rule  and  domination  of  grace  by  means 
of  righteousness. 

The  whole  section  is  thus  the  foundation  of  the  developed 
teaching  and  exhortations  to  holiness  of  Ufe  in  the  two  following 
chapters,  and  of  their  applications  against  the  libertines  and 
antinomians  to  whom  they  allude.  That  they  are  directed  against 
such  opponents  abusing  justification  by  faith  and  not  against 
Judaizers'  complaints  concerning  its  consequences,  appears  from 
the  fact  that  the  three  questions,  6,  1;  6,  15;  7,  7,  are  not  unwar- 
ranted dialectical  taunts  of  Paul's  enemies  as  to  the  logical  out- 
come of  his  Gospel,  but  as  Pfleiderer  recognizes,  Urchristm.,  1, 
164,  are  conclusions  actually  drawn  and  put  in  practice;  although 
not  as  he  holds  by  'many  heathen  Christians,'  but  as  he  too  per- 
ceives by  the  false  teachers  of  Corinth.  Upon  the  conclusion  of 
his  repudiation  of  their  positions,  he  gives  in  chap.  8,  the  heart 
of  the  Epistle,  his  full  and  positive  statement  of  justification 
in  all  its  relations  to  God's  eternal  purpose  of  world-redemption 
as  revealed  in  the  Gospel  of  his  Son.  Yet  it  is  so  constructed,  and 
it  may  reasonably  be  believed  constructed  with  such  direct  in- 
tention, that  it  meets  and  repudiates  every  feature  of  the  false 
teaching  he  has  unmasked  at  Corinth. 

The  chapter  opens  with  a  special  affirmation  of  the  mystic 
union  of  believers  and  Christ  in  the  phrase  'those  in  Christ  Jesus.' 
It  may  here  be  significant  as  a  reassertion  of  II  Cor.  10,  7:  if 
any  man  trusts  in  himself  that  he  is  'of  Christ,'  let  him  consider 
this  again  with  himself  that  as  he  is  of  Christ,  so  also  are  we.  For 
such  a  description  of  Christians,  and  its  equivalent,  6,  11,  'living 
unto  God  in  Christ  Jesus,'  as  summing  up  the  mystic  union  with 
which  this  section  opens  in  6, 1-10,  occurs  here  for  the  first  time  in 
the  Epistle;  and  the  title,  'to  be  of  Christ'  appears  in  the  Epistle 
only  in  vs.  9  of  this  chapter:  if  any  man  has  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
ouTos  ovK  effTLv  avTov.  The  phrase  in  vs.  1,  'those  in  Christ  Jesus' 
may  have  been  originally  further  qualified  by  the  contrast  to 
'those  in  Christ'  in  Corinth,  in  the  words  now  omitted  in  our 
critical  texts:  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh.^ 
"  This  is  the  reading  of  A,  a  corrector  of  D,  Vulgate,  some  Old  Latin  MSS. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  257 

In  this  mystical  union  the  Christian  possesses  the  Spirit  of 
Christ;  and  it  is  a  spirit  of  freedom.  But  by  the  phrase,  vs.  2, 
'  the  law  of  the  Spirit/  Paul  guards  against  the  antinomian  error- 
ists  who  claimed  emancipation  from  all  law  just  because  of  their 
possession  of  the  Spirit.  For  freedom  by  this  law,  not  of  the  ex- 
ternal letter  but  of  the  indweUing  Spirit  as  an  inner  illumination 
of  duty  and  an  invigoration  of  the  will,  is  here  presented  not  as 
an  emancipation  from  the  SiKatco/ia,  the  righteousness  required 
by  the  holy  law  of  God,  vs.  4,  but  from  the  law,  vs.  2,  the  im- 
pelUng  force  of  the  sin  and  death  in  our  members,  cp.  7,  21.  This 
freedom  moreover  in  vss.  3.4,  is  possible  only  as  the  result  of  the 
incarnation  and  redemption  of  Christ,  and  is  reaUzed  only  in  our 
moral  walk  according  to  the  Spirit  which  we  have  received. 

The  extremely  difficult  exegetical  problems  centering  in  the 
several  debated  expressions  and  structure  of  this  third  verse,  are 
illuminated  by  the  view  that  it  presents  in  antitheses  Paul's  refu- 
tation of  the  positions  of  the  errorists.  The  conciseness  and  the 
compression  of  so  many  profound  subjects  in  a  single  formulation 
ranging  from  the  sending  of  the  preexistent  Son  to  our  moral 
walk,  points  out  that  it  is  a  definite  summary  of  the  conflict  with 
false  teachers  at  Corinth  which  has  been  just  won  by  him.  In 
contradiction  of  them  he  has  given  already  in  chap.  7  his  teaching 
of  the  relation  of  the  flesh  not  inherently  sinful,  to  sin  and  the 
Law.  Against  any  form  of  docetic  christology  he  now  asserts 
that  the  condemnation  of  that  sin  in  that  flesh  has  been  accom- 

and  other  versions  and  fathers.  In  many  MSS.  there  was  later  added  to  it: 
'but  after  the  Spirit, '  to  conform  to  vs.  4.  It  is  possible  that  scribes  correcting 
this  addition,  were  led  to  delete  both  the  phrases.  The  retention  of  'walk 
not  after  the  flesh'  would  accord  with  the  thirteen  mentions  of  flesh  in  the 
succeeding  twelve  verses,  and  also  to  'the  law  of  sin  and  death  in  our  mem- 
bers' in  vs.  2.  See  Sanday-Headlam,  in  loc.,  who,  however,  regard  the  variants 
as  interpolations  in  two  steps.  Zahn  rejects  the  addition  since  in  his  view  it 
would  result  in  the  meaningless  statement  that  those  m  Christ  could  be  also 
thought  of  as  walking  after  the  flesh.  This  overlooks  the  possibility  that  the 
combination  could  allude  to  Paul's  exposure  in  I  and  II  Cor.  of  the  reaUy 
fleshly  mind  and  conduct  of  those  falsely  claiming  to  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 
In  II  Cor.  10,  2.3  it  was  the  charge  of  the  Christ  party  against  Paul  himself; 
and  in  the  related  polemic  against  their  principles,  Rom.  6,  he  similarly  com- 
bines union  with  Christ,  vs.  1-11,  with  exhortations  against  service  of  lusts  in 
our  mortal  body.  Jude  18.19  likewise  describes  the  errorists  as  walking  in 
lusts  while  falsely  claiming  to  be  spiritual. 


258    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

plished  by  God  sending,  not  a  Christ  either  temporarily  or  in  mere 
appearance  united  with  Jesus,  but  his  own  Son.  And  the  full 
reality  of  his  incarnation  and  redemptive  death  is  sunmied  up  in 
the  expressions,  sent  'in  the  likeness  of  flesh  of  sin  and  for  sin.' 
The  dogmatic  import  of  these  expressions  is,  as  well  known,  the 
subject  of  keenest  current  debate.  But  we  are  here  concerned 
only  with  the  fact  that  the  occasion  of  them  is  satisfactorily  ac- 
counted for  on  the  view  that  they  are  directed  against  a  docetism 
based  on  a  false  dualism  and  issuing  in  an  indifference  to  Christian 
morality.  In  opposition  to  it,  there  is  in  these  verses  a  declara- 
tion of  an  incarnation  in  full  reaUty,  and  a  definite  reference  to 
the  redemptive  death  of  the  incarnate  Son  in  the  phrase  wept 
d/iaprias.  Our  present  interest  is  to  recognize  that  the  com- 
pressed statements  are  closely  parallel  to  the  fuller  statements  in 
his  controversy  with  the  Corinthian  opponents,  II  Cor.  5,  12-20, 
and  especially  with  the  climax  in  vs.  21 :  t6v  /xt)  yvovra  a^jLaprlav 
{jwkp  "fiixSiv  OLfiapTiav  iwolrfaev,  that  we  might  become  the  right- 
eousness of  God  in  him.  We  find  also  later  in  Philippians  2,  7, 
iv  byLOiiiixaTi  avdpojiriop,  (Txwo-ti  evpeOels  ojs  avdpcciros,  parallel 
to  Rom.  8,  3,  directed  against  gnosticizing  erroists. 

On  the  foundation  of  the  teaching  of  these  vss.  3  and  4  which 
had  been  successfully  maintained  and  in  several  Unes  developed 
in  his  conflict  with  the  Christ  party,  and  definitely  against  their 
indifference  to  the  moral  walk  of  Christians,  he  proceeds,  vss. 
5-17,  to  establish  the  Roman  Christians  in  walking  according  to 
the  Spirit  as  free  children  of  God  with  the  spirit  of  adoption  and 
as  fellow-heirs  with  Christ.  And  as  constantly  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  inspiration  for  this  fiUal  walk  in  obedience  is  the  hope 
of  sharing  the  glory  of  Christ  at  his  return  in  glory.  The  faithful 
saying  *as  truly  as  we  suffer  with  him  in  order  that  we  may  be 
also  glorified  with  him,'  is  the  key-note  of  the  rest  of  the  chapter, 
in  which  is  estimated  the  worth  of  the  sufferings  of  the  present 
KaipSi  and  the  glory  that  is  going  to  be  revealed  to  us-ward.  It 
is  the  fullest  development  of  the  eschatological  theme  'through 
much  tribulation  we  must  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God ' ;  which 
as  here,  was  the  basis  of  the  establishment  of  the  first  Pauline 
converts,  Acts  14,  22.  Coming  directly  after  his  conflict  with 
the  Corinthian  deniers  of  resurrection,  cp.  I  Cor.  15,  19  and 
contra^  vs.  58,  we  can  recognize  in  Rom.  8,  18-25  reflections  of 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  259 

that  conflict  and  a  renewal  of  his  affirmations  that  the  promise  of 
resurrection  Ufe  is  not  completely  realized  in  our  present  gift  of 
the  Spirit.  In  that  gift,  vs.  23,  we  have  as  yet  only  the  first  fruits 
and  earnest  of  our  perfected  sonship,  which  we  still  await  in  the 
redemption  of  our  body.  Contradicting  Corinthian  dualism 
of  spirit  and  inherently  evil  matter,  he  asserts  that  both  our  body 
and  the  whole  creation  shall  yet  be  delivered  at  the  Parousia  from 
the  servitude  of  corruption  into  the  freedom  of  the  glory  of  the 
children  of  God:  a  glory  assured  to  those  who  love  God,  by  his 
eternal  purpose,  vss.  28-30,  that  we  should  be  sharers  of  the 
essential  form  of  the  image  of  his  Son  who  in  his  resurrection  is 
the  first-born  of  many  brethren;  or  as  in  I  Cor.  15,  20  the  first  fruits 
and  pledge  of  a  harvest  of  general  resurrection.  From  this 
redeeming  love  of  God  in  Christ,  vss.  31-34,  can  nothing  separate 
us:  not  the  seven-fold  earthly  sufferings  of  vss.  35-37;  nor,  vss. 
38.39,  the  superhuman,  superterrestrial  or  sub-terrestrial  powers 
of  gnostic  teaching  threatening  to  bar  us  from  our  direct  access 
by  Christ  in  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father. 

The  indications  of  this  section  5,  12-8,  39  of  establishment  of  the 
Roman  Church  by  means  of  his  Corinthian  experiences,  against 
the  possible  inroads  of  the  false  apostles  of  Corinth,  are  further 
strengthened  by  the  section  of  practical  exhortations  in  12,  1  ff. 
In  this  paranetic  division  of  the  Epistle  as  Sanday  and  Headlam 
state,  "the  main  idea  running  through  the  whole  section  seems  to 
be  that  of  peace  and  unity  for  the  Church  in  all  its  relations. 
As  in  the  earlier  portion  of  the  Epistle,  ...  he  lays  the  foundation 
of  unity  and  harmony  on  deep  and  broad  principles,"  p.  351. 
Accepting  this  religious  aim,  we  submit  also  that  the  method  and 
basis  of  this  establishment  is  the  utilization  and  appRcation  of  his 
experience  and  teachings  in  conflict  with  the  Corinthian  errorists. 
In  5,  12-8,  39,  he  had  already  applied  these  results  in  regard  to 
matters  of  faith,  moral  walk  in  the  Spirit  of  Love  and  Christian 
hope.  He  will  now  apply  them  in  connection  with  the  remaining 
topic  of  primitive  instruction.  Church  fellowship.  The  scope  of  the 
section  is  indicated  in  its  initial  and  concluding  summaries.  In 
each  the  corporate  life  of  the  Church  is  referred  to  in  terms  of 
spiritual  sacrificial  worship  and  service,  which  is  animated  by  the 
gift  of  gnosis  from  the  indwelling  Spirit,  issuing  in  all  forms  of 
'well-doing,'  dyado^avvrj,  towards  those  within  and  without  the 


260    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Church.  Thus  at  the  close,  15, 14  ff . ,  he  states  that  in  this  section  of 
admonition  he  is  impressing  upon  their  memory  certain  features, 
&ir6  ixipovs,  of  the  earlier  instruction  given  to  them  whereby  they 
are  able  to  admonish  one  another.  For  they  are  full  of  well-doing, 
and  this  because  they  are  filled  with  all  gnosis.  He  has,  however, 
written  with  the  purpose  of  fulfilling  his  Apostolic  ministry,  here 
described  in  spiritual  sacrificial  terms.  Directly  parallel  to  this 
passage,  with  the  topics  in  reverse  order,  he  bases  in  12,  1  ff.  the 
succeeding  admonitions  on  his  reference  to  Church  life  as  a  whole 
in  sacrificial  terms.  It  is  a  devotion  of  a  Church,  a  Xa6s,  pads, 
as  in  I  Pet.  2,  4-10,  existing  by  the  *  mercies'  of  God  in  calling  the 
Gentiles  and  finally  restoring  Israel,  which  in  Rom.  11,  30-32  is  the 
climax  of  his  argument  based  on  the  Old  Testament  citations 
9,  15.25  ff.  33;  10,  19;  11,  26,  and  practically  of  all  the  texts  em- 
ployed. Hence  their  bodies,  as  the  Corinthians  were  instructed  at 
the  outset,  6,  15.20,  ovk  otdare,  are  members  of  Christ,  are  a  temple 
of  the  indwelling  Spirit,  in  which  they  are  to  glorify  God;  and  as  in 
I  Pet.  2,  5,  as  living  stones  in  a  spiritual  house  built  on  Christ  the 
living  comer  stone,  they  are  here  as  a  holy  priesthood,  to  present 
and  devote  themselves  as  a  living  sacrifice,  their  spiritual  ^arpela. 
In  order  to  do  this,  as  in  15, 14  they  are  filled  with  all  gnosis,  so  here 
they  have  a  metamorphosis,  an  essential  change  in  the  renewing  of 
their  vovs.  With  this  they  no  longer  fashion  themselves  to  the 
moral  standards  and  conduct  of  this  world,  which  as  in  the  parallel 
admonitions,  I  Cor.  7,  31;  I  Pet.  1,  13-15.24;  I  John  2,  13-17, 
passes  away;  but  with  this  fullness  of  gnosis,  enlightenment  and 
power,  they  are  as  in  15,  14  filled  with  well  doing:  they  may  as  in 
Ephes.  5,  17.10  understand,  and  here,  approve  the  will  of  God  for 
the  renewed  life  in  all  its  relations. 

The  selection  of  admonitions  from  this  topic  of  primitive  in- 
struction, is  found  to  be  controlled  by  the  discussion  in  I  Cor. 
12-14  concerning  fellowship  and  unity  in  the  Church  as  it  was 
threatened  by  errorists  whose  boasted  gnosis  is  without  love  and 
is  endangering  the  order,  worship  and  work  of  the  Church  by  the 
claim  of  superior  spiritual  gifts  freeing  them  from  ministerial 
authority.  First  in  vss.  3-8,  to  guard  against  arrogant  claims  of 
a  superior  gnosis,  he  repeats  the  argument  of  I  Cor.  12  as  to  the 
function  of  the  several  gifts  for  the  profit  of  the  one  body  of  the 
Church.    This  leads  in  vss.  9-21  as  in  I  Cor.  13,  to  Love  as  the 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  261 

supreme  principle  in  mutual  service,  fellowship  and  devotion,  and 
in  long-suffering  and  endurance  in  the  face  of  opposition.  In 
direct  development  of  these  latter  admonitions,  and  as  has  been 
suggested,  to  warn  against  the  probable  indications  of  an  ominous 
spirit  of  emancipation  from  the  social  order  and  customs,  I  Cor. 
7,  20  ff.  11,  3  ff.,  on  the  false  principles  of  the  errorists,  we  find 
the  injunction  of  loyalty  to  the  State,  13,  1-7;  and  in  8-12  he 
renews  the  teaching  that  love  inspired  by  the  hope  of  the  Parousia 
denied  by  the  false  teachers,  is  the  fulfillment  of  all  law,  in  con- 
trast, vss.  13.14,  to  the  disorder,  sensuality  and  divisive  spirit 
which  we  found  as  characteristics  of  the  errorists  in  the  earlier 
Epistles. 

The  remainder  of  the  section  14,  1-15,  13  treats  of  unity  within 
the  Church  by  mutual  toleration.  With  Sanday-Headlam  we 
consider  that  it  does  not  refer  to  any  existing  controversy  in 
Rome,  or  to  definite  parties  of  weak  and  strong.  Rather,  it  is 
aimed  to  guard  against  such  a  situation  by  inculcating  principles  of 
Church  fellowship  generalized  from  his  experience  and  decisions 
in  the  Corinthian  controversy.  Since  he  includes  himself  among 
'the  strong, '  he  evidently  refers  to  the  power  and  freedom  of  faith 
which  is  the  outcome  of  true  gnosis.  But  he  again  guards  against 
the  abuse  of  it  as  being  the  essential  and  determining  principle, 
which  in  14,  15  as  in  I  Cor.  13  is  love.  In  Corinth  it  was  thus 
abused  so  as  to  become  a  stumbling  block  to  Greeks,  Jews  and 
the  Church,  by  participation  in  heathen  temple  worship.  There  is, 
however,  nothing  to  suggest  such  an  abuse  in  the  Roman  Church. 
The  occasion  of  the  section  has  therefore  to  be  sought  in  a  deter- 
mination of  the  disputed  question,  who  are  'the  weak,'  which  to 
Lake,  p.  382,  appears  to  be  insoluble.  For  as  he  and  Sanday- 
Headlam  show  they  cannot  be  converted  heathen  ascetics,  who 
would  have  no  interest  in  the  observance  of  days;  nor,  we  may  add, 
ascetics  on  Jewish  gnostic  principles,  whom  he  opposes  in  Colos- 
sians;  nor  Essenes,  who  are  not  known  outside  Palestine;  nor 
alleged  Ebionites  nor  Judaizers  whom  he  would  not  treat  in  this 
lenient  manner,  and  who  would  not  be  obliged  to  abstain  from 
flesh  and  wine;  nor  is  it  likely,  in  view  of  the  definite  Jewish  al- 
lusions, that  Paul  here  presents,  as  Sanday-Headlam  conclude,  the 
eater  and  non-eater  as  types  of  an  excessive  scrupulousness  and  of 
an  utter  indifference  to  external  observances. 


262    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

As  a  remaining  possibility  we  may  suggest,  in  development  of 
'the  oldest  explanation,'  Sanday-Headlam,  p.  400,  that  the  ref- 
erence is  to  Jewish  Christians  in  Rome  and  elsewhere  who,  as  yet, 
weak  in  the  freedom  of  faith,  continue  to  live  Mosaically  like  their 
brethren  in  Jerusalem  whom  Paul  recognizes;  and  specifically  to 
live  as  heretofore  according  to  the  definite  rules  for  Jews  associated 
with  heathen  especially  in  foreign  lands.  We  have  these  rules  in 
the  Mishna  tractate  on  Idolatry,  'Aboda  zara.^^  In  it,  although 
abstinence  from  wine  and  flesh  is  not  commanded  in  the  Mosaic 
law,  various  forms  of  abstinences  from  them  are  enjoined  upon 
Jews  in  the  midst  of  heathen  life,  in  order  to  avoid  possible  defiling 
associations  with  idolatry.  As  wine  may  have  been  devoted  to 
idols  by  libation  at  the  vintage  or  in  any  case  defiled  by  contact 
with  a  heathen,  its  prohibition  in  every  conceivable  case  forms  a 
principal  interest  of  the  tractate.  There  is  a  similar  pfohibition  of 
meat  and  all  other  foods  which  could  have  any  association  with 
idolatry  or  involve  a  possible  breach  of  Mosaic  food-laws.^  The 
description  of  the  abstainer,  Rom.  14,  2,  as  eating  herbs  or  vege- 
tables, is  illustrated  by  the  prohibition  of  heathen  bread  or  of 
eating  bread  with  a  heathen,  chap.  2,  6,  cp.  3,  9,  with  the  notes  of 
Elmslie,  p.  38,  and  of  Strack,  p.  9.  The  scrupulousness  even  in 
regard  to  vegetables  is  exhibited  in  the  curious  prohibition,  chap. 
2,  6.7,  of  the  juice  of  a  root  which  must  be  cut,  and  thus  possibly 
with  a  contaminated  knife;  and  in  the  permission  to  eat  the  leaf 
of  the  same  plant,  which  could  be  plucked  by  the  hand.  The 
Jewish  Christian  abstainer  in  Rom.  14  could  thus  be  referred  to  as 
observing  the  food  rules  preserved  in  this  tractate.  When  he  is 
also  described  as  esteeming  one  day  above  another,  the  reference  is 
obviously  to  his  Mosaic  sabbath  observance.  And  Paul  enjoins 
that  these  converts  living  in  such  heathen  centers  as  Rome  and 

2*  It  did  not  indeed  assume  its  present  form  until  c.  200  a.  d.,  yet  its  de- 
cisions are  the  results  of  discussions  of  earlier  generations;  and  'the  legislation 
which  it  sets  forth  arose  to  satisfy  the  religious  scruples  of  orthodox  Judaism 
contemporary  with  Apostolic  or  sub- Apostolic  Christianity':  Elmslie,  Texts 
and  Studies,  VIII,  p.  iii,  citing  also  Abrahams,  Camb.  Bib.  Essays,  pp.  184  flf. 

*•  "As  in  old  Israel  all  slaughter  was  sacrifice,  so  animal  food  was  partaken 
by  Greeks  and  Romans  as  by  Semites,  through  the  mediation  of  sacrificial 
consecration.  The  problem  of  eating  meat  consecrated  to  heathen  gods  was 
felt  alike  by  Christians  and  by  Jews":  Elmslie,  p.  32,  quoting  also  W.  Robert- 
son Smith. 


I 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  263 

Corinth,  shall  be  granted  liberty  to  continue  their  previous  observ- 
ances. This  was  neither  an  approval  of  Judaizing  attempts  to 
foist  Mosaic  customs  upon  heathen  converts,  nor  of  Colossian 
Jewish  gnostic  attempts  to  introduce  abstinences  on  dualistic 
principles  of  asceticism.  He  therefore  urges  their  reception  without 
controversy:  without  disputes  concerning  the  views  underlying 
the  conduct  in  this  matter,  of  either  class.  ^°  Paul  who  in  the 
interest  of  church  unity  and  fellowship  recognized  the  liberty  of 
the  Jerusalem  Apostles  and  Christians  fully  persuaded  in  their 
own  minds,  to  live  Mosaically,  is  here  in  the  same  interest  urging 
'the  strong'  at  Rome  to  exercise  the  same  toleration;  ^^  on  the 
general  principle,  14,  15,  of  walking  according  to  love  as  in  I  Cor. 
8-11,  1 ;  13,  under  the  Lordship  and  example  of  the  One  Christ  who 
pleased  not  himself;  who  became  minister  of  circumcision  both  to 
confirm  the  promises  to  the  Jewish  Fathers,  and  also  that  the 
Gentiles  might  glorify  Israel's  God.  Accordingly  the  section 
closes  with  Old  Testament  citations  appUed  to  the  Jewish  Messiah 
praising  God  among  the  Gentiles;  while  they  join  the  Jewish 
people  in  praises  with  one  mouth  to  Israel's  God,  since  their  hope 
is  fixed  upon  Israel's  Messiah,  the  root  of  Jesse.    In  this  united 

'"  This  paraphrase  by  Zahn  of  dcaKpiaeLS  hioKoyiaixdv  has  in  its  favor  a 
number  of  N.  T.  parallels  in  language,  substance  and  context,  e.  g.y  I  Tim.  2, 
8;  I  Cor.  11,  16,  which  suggest  a  primitive  Christian  phrase  and  rule,  possibly 
related  to  the  Jewish  rule  controlling  controversy,  'machloqeth.'  The  term 
appears  in  'Aboda  Zara,  1,  6,  following  a  reference  to  observance  of  local 
custom:  'Let  no  man  alter  this  for  fear  of  controversy';  and  ElmsUe  notes: 
'The  clause  is  a  warning  against  being  eccentric  in  matters  of  ritual  observ- 
ance and  lightly  causing  dissension  in  the  Jewish  community.' 

'1  The  Pauhne  teaching  of  chap.  14  f .  is  renewed  in  the  resolution  of  the 
General  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  on  motion  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  F.  W.  Tomkins,  deputy  from  Penna.,  Journal  of  1906,  p.  217.  After 
the  preambles  that  the  attitude  of  the  Church  Universal  towards  the  Jews, 
since  the  days  of  Constantine,  has  caused  the  opinion  to  be  widespread  in 
Jewry  that  loyalty  to  Christ  involves  disloyalty  to  Israel;  and  that  the  Jews 
are  on  the  eve  of  national  restoration  to  the  Holy  Land,  the  Convention 
"proclaims  to  the  Jews  that  they  are  left  free,  if  they  so  desire,  to  observe  the 
national  and  social  customs  of  Israel  when  they  accept  our  Lord  Jesus  Mes- 
siah, according  to  the  teaching  and  practice  of  Christ  and  the  Hebrew  Chris- 
tians in  the  primitive  Church.  In  adopting  this  Resolution  the  General  Con- 
vention distinctively  affirms  that  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile  can  be  saved  by 
works  of  the  Law,  but  only  through  the  merits  and  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord  and  Saviour." 


264    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

worship  the  Jewish  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  joins  with  the  prayer 
that  God  who  gives  this  hope  will  fill  them  with  all  joy  and  peace  in 
believing,  that  they  may  abomid  in  hope  in  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost;  and  already  in  I  Cor.  15,  58,  establishment  in  the  hope  of 
glory  with  the  returning  Christ  is  to  be  their  inspiration  always  to 
abound  in  the  work  of  the  Lord. 

We  have  thus  recognized  in  our  examination  of  the  group  of 
Pauline  Epistles  written  between  51  and  58  a.  d.  many  of  the 
distinctive  features  and  methods  and  the  probable  doctrinal 
trend  of  a  Jewish  mystic,  gnostic  movement.  We  have  found  it  to 
be  pre-supposed  in  the  Thessalonian  Letters,  attacked  with  in- 
creasing defijiiteness  in  I  Cor.,  openly  denoimced  in  II  Cor.,  and 
guarded  against  by  means  of  his  successful  earlier  defense  and 
polemic,  in  large  sections  of  Romans.  We  turn  now  to  the  later 
New  Testament  Epistles  in  which  such  a  movement  or  its  begin- 
ning is  generally  admitted,  to  compare  the  indications  of  its 
characteristics  and  activities,  and  of  the  defense  and  polemic 
directed  against  it,  with  the  results  we  have  thus  far  reached. 

3.   EPISTLES  OF  THE  IMPRISONMENT 


We  have  first  considered  the  indications  of  the  existence  and 
characteristics  of  a  gnostic  movement  in  the  earlier  groups  of 
Pauline  Epistles  dating  from  51  to  58  a.  d.,  and  all  of  them  con- 
nected with  Corinth.  This  order  of  investigation  has  been  chosen 
not  only  as  the  chronological  and  logical  basis  for  the  study  of  the 
later  activities  of  the  movement  and  of  the  Pauline  polemic  against 
it,  but  also  because  its  existence  in  this  early  period  is  generally 
either  denied  or  ignored  or  not  utilized  constructively.^^  Those 
Epistles  exhibit  the  Apostle's  polemic  while  writing  amid  his  work 
in  Corinth,  Proconsular  Asia  and  Macedon;  and  the  latest  of  the 
group  reveals  his  interest  to  guard  against  the  intrusion  of  the 

"  B.  Weiss,  Inirod.,  §  24,  4,  sees  in  Colossians  a  new  opposition  to  Paul. 
McGiffert,  Apos.  Age,  p.  369,  finds  in  that  Epistle  'the  first  appearance  of 
that  syncretism  of  Oriental  theosophy  and  Christian  faith  which  in  one 
form  or  another  characterized  all  the  gnostic  systems  of  the  second  century.' 
To  Pfleiderer  also,  Urchristm.,  I,  187,  'the  errors  combatted  in  Colossians  are 
of  a  different  kind  from  those  with  which  Paul  had  heretofore  had  to  deal.' 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  265 

movement  into  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  succeeding  group  of  the 
four  Prison  Letters  written  from  Rome  about  63  a.  d.,  will  ex- 
hibit his  continued  attack  upon  its  activities  as  it  appears  in  the 
provinces  of  Asia  and  Macedon.  We  shall  endeavor  to  show  that 
in  this  group  of  Epistles  the  characteristics  of  the  opposing  move- 
ment are  the  same  as  those  in  the  earher  group;  that  they  follow 
the  same  line  of  development;  and  that  the  now  distincter  features 
of  the  system  accord  with  and  elucidate  the  intimations  and  con- 
jectural construction  of  the  data  we  have  proposed;  and  that 
therefore  the  polemic  of  this  later  group  is  directed  against  the 
same  movement  which  was  opposed  in  the  Epistles  written  some 
five  years  earUer. 

It  is  usual  to  find  the  first  appearance  of  such  a  movement  in 
Colosse,  and  as  occasioned  there  by  well-known  syncretistic  local 
conditions.  Even  with  this  Umited  recognition  we  should  also 
expect  to  find  references  to  it  in  the  companion  encyclical  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians  intended  to  circulate  in  the  adjacent  districts; 
and  we  are  also  led  to  expect  references  to  it  in  Philippians,  written 
in  the  same  surroundings  and  probably  at  nearly  the  same  time. 
We  shall  therefore  examine  the  group  as  a  whole,  and  consider  the 
evidence  for  the  presence  of  a  gnostic  propaganda  in  the  general 
structure  and  leading  topics  of  the  several  Epistles;  as  our  limits 
will  not  permit  a  direct  study  of  the  various  special  expressions 
which  are  the  usual  grounds  for  concluding  the  presence  of  gnostic 
influence,  and  which  are  studied  in  the  leading  commentaries  in  the 
light  of  recent  researches  in  the  History  of  Religions.  The  results 
of  literary  criticism,  which  has  indeed  been  affected  by  the  question 
of  the  gnostic  allusions,  enable  us  to  accept  as  genuine  all  the 
letters  of  the  group:  Philippians  and  Philemon  being  long  since 
accepted  by  critics  of  all  schools;  Colossians,  with  some  exceptions, 
yet  by  such  representative  scholars  as  Bacon,  McGiffert,  Moffatt 
and  von  Soden;  Ephesians,  very  generally;  and  though  not  ac- 
cepted by  Moffatt,  von  Soden  and  others,  is  yet  distinctly  recog- 
nized by  Bacon,  A^.  T.  Intdctn.,  p.  116  ff.,  as  well  as  by  M.  Dibelius 
and  McGiffert.  Jiilicher  favors  the  genuineness  of  Colossians,  yet 
thinks,  Enc.  Bib.  868,  concerning  Ephesians  that  'perhaps  the 
question  ought  to  be  left  open  as  not  yet  ripe  for  settlement.' 

We  first  observe  that  all  the  churches  addressed  in  this  group 
are  loyal  to  Pauline  teachings.      Expressions  emphasizing  his 


266    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

confidence  and  reliance  characterize  all  the  four  Epistles.  He 
joys  when  beholding  in  spirit  the  order,  rd^ts,  and  stedfastness, 
<TT€pio)iia,  of  the  Colossians'  faith  in  Christ,  2,  5;  cp.  1,  3-8;  2,  6  f.; 
and  the  aim  of  the  Letter  and  of  the  prayers  of  Epaphras  is  their 
abiding,  grounded  and  stedfast,  1,  23;  4,  12.  In  Ephesians,  since 
it  is  a  circular  letter,  the  references  are  naturally  less  concrete, 
but  no  less  positive,  1,  1.15;  2,  5  f.  19;  4,  20;  and  the  pervading 
devotional  spirit  presupposes  the  fullest  sympathy  of  the  readers 
with  his  teachings  and  exhortations.  The  Philippians  are  his 
*joy  and  crown,'  evoking  his  thanksgiving  for  their  fellowship, 
in  the  Gospel;  cp.  also,  1,  26  f.;  2, 12-18;  4,  10  f.  We  notice  also 
that  the  readers  of  the  three  Epistles  are  already  acquainted  with 
the  false  teachings  which  are  combatted.  The  swift  allusions  and 
the  compressed  descriptions  of  them,  point  to  the  readers'  famil- 
iarity with  them.  We  may  recognize  the  controlUng  features 
and  the  developments  of  these  teachings  in  the  structure  and  in- 
terests of  the  main  divisions  of  the  Letters:  the  introductory 
prayers,  the  sections  of  positive  doctrinal  statement,  the  direct 
attack  upon  the  errorists,  and  the  resulting  sections  of  practical 
exhortation. 

That  among  the  aims  of  establishing  these  readers  was  that  of 
warding  off  the  claims  of  teachers  offering  gnosis  or  a  superior 
gnosis,  can  be  concluded  not  only  from  the  definite  allusions  to 
them  in  the  later  sections  of  the  Epistles,  but  also  from  the  sig- 
nificantly elaborated  prayers  for  the  readers'  development  in 
gnosis.  These  prayers  enable  us  to  recognize  more  clearly  the 
predominant  function  assigned  to  gnosis  by  the  errorists,  in  view 
of  the  Apostle's  carefully  contrasted  correlation  of  it  with  the 
other  elements  of  the  Christian  life.  In  I  and  II  Thess.  his  prayers 
were  simply  for  his  converts'  development  in  faith,  love  and 
hope,  I  Thess.  3,  10;  II  Thess.  1,  11.12.  With  increasing  informa- 
tion of  the  gnosticizing  movement,  his  thanksgiving  in  I  Cor.  is 
that  his  own  converts  have  been  enriched  in  all  utterance  and  in 
all  gnosis;  and  this,  definitely,  as  the  issue  of  their  confirmation, 
^€j3atco<rt$,  viz.,  of  faith  in  his  Gospel  witness  of  Christ  and  in  ex- 
pectation of  his  coming  apocalypse  in  glory.  In  place  of  prayer, 
is  his  assurance  that  God  will  confirm  them  blameless,  in  a  life 
of  holy  love,  until  that  Day  of  the  Lord.  As  the  continuation  of 
the  correspondence,  the  devotional  introduction  of  II  Cor.  is  one 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  267 

of  thanksgiving  for  their  renewed  loyalty;  while  in  Romans  his 
prayer  is  for  a  visit  to  them  in  order  to  share  on  the  basis  of  their 
faith,  some  spiritual  gift;  and  his  concluding  wish,  16,  19,  is  that 
they  may  be  wise  as  to  the  good  and  innocent  as  to  the  evil. 

But  now  in  Colossians,  issuing  from  thanksgiviag  for  their 
faith,  love  and  hope,  is  definitely  a  long  prayer  concerning  gnosis 
in  a  series  of  interwoven  clauses.  These  assert  the  readers'  real 
possession  of  epignosis  of  God's  will  as  the  result  of  the  Pauline 
preaching  and  teaching  through  Ephaphras;  their  true  and  com- 
plete development  will  be  by  means  of  it,  in  all  spiritual  wisdom, 
ccK^ta,  'to  apprehend  God's  verities,  and  in  all  intelKgence,  <t\)v- 
€<7c$,  to  follow  his  processes' ;  the  purpose  of  this  gnosis  is  to  lead 
to  the  moral  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord  and  approved  by  him;  and 
the  increase  in  the  enlightenment  of  this  epignosis  of  God,  with 
the  accompanying  increase  in  all  dvvafiLs  from  the  might  of  the 
divine  glory  is  fitting  them  for  their  inheritance  among  the  saints 
in  the  kingdom  of  light.  In  this  way  the  gnosis  in  vss.  9-12  is 
guardedly  Hnked  in  closest  relations  with  the  faith,  the  moral 
walk  in  love,  the  eschatological  hope  and  the  fellowship,  which 
are  based,  vss.  3-8,  on  the  ApostoHc  tradition  of  the  word  of  truth 
in  the  Gospel;  on  the  epignosis  of  the  grace  of  God  in  truth. 

In  Ephesians  likewise  the  opening  doxology  interweaves  among 
every  spiritual  blessing  in  the  heavenlies  in  Christ,  the  wealth  of 
the  divine  grace  abounding  towards  us  in  the  enlightment  of 
gnosis  in  all  wisdom  and  discernment.  Again  on  the  basis  of  their 
faith,  love  and  hope  resting,  1, 13  f .,  as  in  Colossians  on  the  ApostoUc 
tradition  of  the  word  of  truth,  the  gospel  of  their  salvation,  he 
prays,  vs.  15  ff.,  that  they  may  receive  the  gift  of  a  spirit  of  wisdom 
and  revelation  in  the  epignosis  of  God,  which  will  not  only  en- 
lighten their  hearts  concerning  the  Christian  hope  and  the  wealth 
of  glory  of  fellowship  of  the  inheritance,  but  also  concerning  the 
exceeding  greatness  of  the  divine  SvvafXLS  to  us-wards  who  believe. 
And  he  resumes  in  3,  14  his  prayer  that  they  may  have  the  gift  of 
5iii/ajLits  from  the  Father  through  the  Spirit:  the  indwelling  of 
Christ  through  faith ;  that  thus  rooted  in  love  they  may  be  enabled 
to  know  with  all  saints  the  love  of  Christ  surpassing  gnosis,  and 
be  filled  unto  all  the  fullness  of  God.  Here  too  in  Ephesians  he 
can  both  confidently  claim  for  his  ministry  and  for  his  converts 
the  fullness  of  gnosis;  and  also  duly  assign  its  function  in  the  de- 


268    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

velopment  of  Christian  life.  In  the  remaining  Epistle  also  his 
prayer  for  the  Phihppians,  is  based  on  their  fellowship  in  the  fur- 
therance of  the  Gospel,  and  gnosis  is  again  discriminatingly  co- 
ordinated with  Christian  growth ;  it  is  that  their  love  may  abound 
in  epignosis  and  in  all  ataSrjaLS,  'perception,  in  practical  appUca- 
tions';  that  so  they  may  approve  the  things  morally  excellent; 
may  be  sincere  and  void  of  offense  until  the  Day  of  Christ,  being 
then  found  filled  with  the  fruit  of  righteousness.  Thus,  in  all 
three  Epistles,  cp.  also  Philemon,  vs.  6,  gnosis  instead  of  being 
the  essential  and  constitutive  principle  of  the  Gospel,  or  as  di- 
vorcing us  from  moral  obligations,  or  as  supplanting  the  primitive 
echatology,  is  seen  in  these  prayers  as  in  I  Cor.  to  be  a  subordinate 
principle  of  Ught  and  power  by  which  love,  the  outgrowth  of  faith, 
manifests  itself  in  every  good  work  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
Christian  hope. 

The  f  amiharity  of  the  readers  with  a  gnosis  which  is  the  antithesis 
of  the  gnosis  in  Paul's  prayers,  is  also  indicated  in  all  three  letters 
by  the  Apostle's  developed  restatement  of  the  content  of  the 
gnosis  which  he  preached  and  which  they  had  received.  At  the 
conclusion  of  this  positive  statement  of  it  in  Col.,  he  terms  it  'the 
epignosis  of  the  mystery  of  God,  even  Christ.'  Lightfoot  long  ago 
recognized  that  the  term  'mystery'  was  probably  appropriated 
from  its  use  by  gnostics.  It  could  be  conceived  as  expressing  their 
claim  to  an  esoteric  knowledge  by  means  of  visions  and  revelations 
of  all  mysteries,  I  Cor.  13,  2;  II  Cor.  12,  1,  and  of  their  power  by 
imparting  it  to  make  their  initiates  riXeioi.^^  In  opposition  to 
this  claim,  just  as  he  had  emphasized  that  all  Christians  had  a  gift 
of  gnosis,  so  now  the  Apostle  asserts  that  his  Gospel  was  itself  a 
revelation  to  all  believers,  of  the  supreme  mystery  of  God.  This 
had  been  hidden  in  God  from  eternal  ages;  but  now  in  his  own 
seasons,  in  a  dispensation  belonging  to  the  fullness  of  the  times,  it 
has  been  revealed  in  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  with  which  Paul 
and  the  holy  Apostles  and  Prophets  have  been  intrusted.  It  is 
therefore  a  mystery  divinely  revealed  in  the  Spirit,  and  revealed 

"Robinson's  argument,  Ephesians,  p.  30  f.;  234  flf.,  that  the  currency  of 
the  word  mystery  in  common  parlance  and  in  Jewish  Apocolyptic  in  the 
colorless  sense  of  a  secret  of  any  kind,  makes  improbable  Paul's  adoption  of 
it  from  the  terminology  of  the  mystery  rehgions,  does  not  meet  the  point  that 
he  could  have  adopted  it  from  the  errorists'  appropriation  of  it  from  those  cults. 


THP  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  269 

universally  in  the  Apostolic  preaching  and  teaching  ministry  to 
every  man,  in  all  wisdom,  that  thereby  every  man  may  be  pre- 
sented perfect,  r^Xetos  in  Christ.  This  vindication  of  a  universal 
revelation  in  the  Gospel  of  the  supreme  mystery,  is  made  not  only 
in  this  group  of  letters,  Col.  1,  25  ff.;  Ephes.  1,  9;  3, 2  ff.;  but  earlier, 
I  Cor.  2,  6  ff.;  and  probably  vs.  1;  II  Cor.  4,  3-6;  Rom.  16,  25;  and 
later  in  Tit.  1,  2  f.;  cp.  also  I  Pet.  1,  10  ff.  and  the  basis  of  this 
teaching  in  Mk.  4,  22  and  parallels. 

The  content  of  this  revealed  mystery  is,  however,  not  merely  as 
defined  in  most  of  the  commentaries,  the  admission  of  the  Gentiles 
and  their  full  fellowship  in  the  Church.  That  is  an  essential  ele- 
ment in  it.  It  is  naturally  duly  emphasized  by  the  Apostle  who 
was  the  principal  organ  of  its  communication  and  administration, 
and  who  was  called  upon  to  vindicate  it  against  its  Judaizing 
opponents.  Yet  Paul's  own  most  comprehensive  description  of  the 
mystery  is  'the  mystery  of  God,'  the  mystery  of  his  will  made 
known  according  to  his  redemptive  purpose.  Col.  2,  2;  Eph.  1,  9, 
cp.  Rev.  10,  7.  As  its  revelation,  the  illumination  of  the  gnosis  of 
the  glory  of  God,  is  in  the  face  of  Christ  the  image  of  God,  II  Cor. 
4.  6,  the  Apostle  can  speak  in  Col.  2,  2,  of  the  mystery  of  God,  even 
Christ;  and  in  Eph.  3, 4,  of  the  mystery  of  Christ;  or  of  the  gospel 
preaching,  as  speaking  the  mystery  of  Christ,  Col.  4,  3,  and  as 
making  known  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel,  Eph.  6, 19.  Its  ApostoHc 
preachers  being,  I  Cor.  4,  1,  ministers  of  Christ  and  therefore 
stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  their  ministry  would  include 
revelation  of  definite  elements  in  the  supreme  mystery.  Such  as 
are  referred  to  are  connected  with  the  concluding  reaUzation  of  the 
divine  purpose:  the  restoration  of  Israel  when  the  times  of  the 
Gentiles  shall  come  in,  Rom.  11,  25  ff.;  the  transformation  of  the 
living  at  the  Parousia,  I  Cor.  15, 51.  Especially  is  the  union  of  Jew 
and  Gentile  in  the  Church,  emphasized  as  a  revealed  mystery, 
Col.  1,  26  f.;  Eph.  3,  4  ff.  The  consummation  of  this  union,  cp. 
Rom.  11,  26  and  vs.  15,  belongs,  however,  to  the  'seasons  of  re- 
freshing from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  the  times  of  restoration 
of  all  things,'  Acts  3,  19  f.;  when  the  mystery  of  God  purposing 
to  sum  up  all  things  in  Christ,  Eph.  1, 10,  is  accomplished. 

But  while  this  is  the  reXos,  the  end  when  Christ  shall  deliver  up 
the  Kingdom  to  God,  I  Cor.  15,  24,  cp.  Eph.  5,  27,  and  is  the 
accompHshment  of  the  mystery  of  God,  Rev.  10,  7,  yet  this  final 


270    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

purpose  and  goal  is  not  the  complete  revealed  mystery,  which  is 
nothing  less  than  God's  revelation  of  himself  in  the  person  and 
redemption  of  Christ.  When  in  Eph.  3,  3,  Paul  refers  his  readers  to 
his  statement  of  Christ's  reconcihation  of  Jew  and  Gentile  in 
one  body  to  God,  2,  11-22,  as  evidence  that  the  mystery  was  made 
known  to  him,  he  adds  that  he  has  written  only  h  6\iy(^,  briefly 
and  in  part,  of  the  mystery  of  God  he  has  already  in  1,  3-14  viewed 
from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  until  the  summing  up  of 
all  things  in  Christ.  And  further  in  3,  4-12,  he  speaks  of  the 
Gentiles  being  coheirs,  not  as  a  complete  statement  of  the  mystery 
of  Christ,  but  as  a  means  whereby  his  readers  may  perceive  his 
avv€(Tf,s,  his  *  apprehension  of  the  bearings'  of  that  mystery.  His 
administration  of  this  definite  revealed  mystery  will  make  known 
to  heavenly  principalities  through  the  Church  uniting  in  one  body 
Jew  and  Gentile,  the  new  glories  of  the  richly  varied  wisdom  of  God 
according  to  his  eternal  purpose  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Simi- 
larly in  the  Colossian  parallel  1,  25  ff.,  the  whole  Gospel,  the  Word 
of  God,  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ,  is  the  mystery  in  its  full- 
ness. Its  revelation  to  the  saints  included  the  definite  revelation, 
especially  through  Paul,  of  the  wealth  of  the  glory  of  this  mystery 
among  the  Gentiles,  which  is  '  Christ  in  you'  the  hope  of  glory;  but 
in  2,  2,  the  whole  wealth  of  the  full  assurance  of  understanding, 
avveais,  is  the  epignosis  of  the  mystery  of  God,  even  Christ  in 
whom  are  all  the  treasurers  of  sophia  and  gnosis,  hidden,  but 
accessible  to  those  in  Christ. 

It  is  this  fuller  presentation  of  the  mystery  which  is  given  in 
Col.  1,  12-2,  3,  as  the  basis  from  which  the  attack  on  the  whole 
line  of  the  errorists'  position  is  pressed.  So  distinctly  is  it  framed 
and  expressed  for  this  purpose  that  it  led  Baur,  Paul,  II,  1-45,  to 
the  view  that  it  betrayed  a  reference  to  second-century  gnosticism 
and  thus  proved  the  Epistle  not  to  be  genuine.  For  similar  reasons 
Pfleiderer,  Urchstnm.,  1, 187-191,  II,  210-226,  regards  Colossians  as 
a  second-century  antignostic-gnosticizing  redaction  of  a  PauUne 
original.  But  the  present  recognition  of  its  genuineness  carries 
with  it  Paul's  acquaintance  at  this  period,  with  the  already  emerg- 
ing issues  of  the  gnostics'  attempt  to  amalgamate  their  cosmologi- 
cal  speculations  and  redemptive  theories  with  the  Christian  faith. 
Keeping  in  mind  therefore  that  the  section  1,  12  ff.  grows  out  of 
the  prayer  for  gnosis  without  transition,  and  that  at  its  conclusion 


I 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  271 

it  is  said  to  be  written  to  guard  against  the  false  teachers  who  are 
then  directly  attacked,  we  find  in  the  section  the  Apostle's  positive 
revelation  of  the  mystery  of  God. 

The  section  is  essentially  christological;  and  therefore  the  work 
and  person  of  Christ  is  presented  as  a  revelation  and  accom- 
plishment of  the  Father's  eternal  redemptive  purpose.  In  opposi- 
tion to  any  system  of  mediating  aeons,  to  duaUstic  theories  of  evil 
powers  of  darkness,  or  to  gradual  ascent  to  the  divine  through 
gnostic  revelations  and  observances,  Paul  declares  that  the  Father 
himself  has  already  made  us  competent  for  sharing  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  hght;  has  already  deUvered  us  from  the  power  of 
darkness  by  translating  us  into  the  Kingdom  of  the  Son  of  his  love: 
the  Kingdom  in  which  we  already  possess  redemption  and  freedom, 
in  our  forgiveness  and  mystic  union  with  the  redeeming  Son.  His 
sole  lordship  in  this  Kingdom  and  his  redeeming  power  rests  next 
on  the  revealed  mystery  of  his  person.  He  is  in  relation  to  God,  the 
dK6)v,  the  perfect  representation  of  the  invisible  God;  and  there- 
fore the  whole  revelation  of  God  is  already  complete  in  him,  the 
preexistent  Son,  cp.  Hbws.  1,  1  ff.  In  his  relation  to  the  universe, 
in  antithesis  to  any  gnostic  cosmology  of  a  creation  by  an  inferior 
demiurge  or  emanations,  in  order  to  explain  the  existence  of  evil  on 
duahstic  principles,  Christ  is  the  first  born,  Hhe  absolute  heir  and 
sovereign  Lord'  of  all  creation.  For  he  is  himself  the  creator, 
sustainer,  Ufe  and  goal  of  the  visible  and  invisible  universe  and  of 
any  conceivable  orders  of  existence  in  the  gnostic  series  of  angeUc 
mediators.  And  in  contrast  to  their  speculations  concerning  man 
and  his  salvation  and  perfection,  the  €Ik(j}v  and  Son  is  likewise  the 
head  of  the  body,  the  Church;  being,  in  contradiction  to  their 
denials  of  resurrection,  the  first  born  and  first  fruits  of  resurrection 
from  the  dead;  the  power  of  his  resurrection  being  the  apxfi,  the 
abiding  source  and  principle  of  the  life  of  his  Church.  His  sole 
lordship  in  all  worlds,  his  TrpcoTeueti',  is  based  on  the  truth  that  the 
whole  pleroma,  'the  totaUty  of  divine  powers  and  attributes,'  in 
distinction  from  gnostic  teachings,  dwelt  permanently  in  him,  with 
the  eternal  purpose  that  in  him  God  might  reconcile  the  universe 
unto  himself.^*    Against  the  denials  of  a  real  incarnation  and  re- 

"  Holtzmann,  N.  T,  Theologie,  I,  480  f .,  II,  240  ff.,  who  regards  Col.  and 
Eph.  as  Deutero-Pauline,  states:  'The  influence  of  gnosis  and  also  the  direct 
point  of  the  polemic  against  it,  becomes  most  clear  in  the  view  of  our  Epistles 


272    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

demptive  death,  on  docetic  and  dualistic  principles,  he  adds  with 
unmistakable  definiteness  that  the  Son's  universal  reconcihation 
was  affected  in  his  body,  the  body  of  his  flesh,  by  death,  by  the 
blood  of  his  cross. 

That  this  section  of  positive  doctrinal  statement  is  framed  to 
repel  false  teachings  is  distinctly  stated  in  introducing  the  section, 
2,  4-3,  4,  in  which  the  false  teachers  are  now  directly  attacked 
and  definite  tenets  and  tendencies  of  their  system  are  specifically 
repudiated.  It  is  usually  the  main  source  for  determining  the 
nature  of  the  Colossian  opposition  and  its  later  developments. 
In  regard  to  the  description  of  the  errorists,  it  is  evident  from  the 
references  to  Jewish  institutions  that  they  are  Jews.  That  they, 
however,  are  not  judaizers  is  very  generally  recognized,  since 
the  Jewish  topics  are  not  treated  from  the  standpoint  of  Paul's 
anti-judaistic  polemic;  the  prohibitions  of  2,  16  ff.,-  exceed  the 
Mosaic  prescriptions;  and  the  references  to  philosophy,  wisdom 
and  gnosis,  show  that  the  movement  comes  from  a  different 
quarter,  cp.  Dibelius,  Geisterwelt,  u.  s.  w.,  p.  153.  The  various 
theories  as  to  what  other  than  a  judaizing  source  the  Jewish 
Christian  false  teaching  can  be  assigned,  are  Hsted  in  the  Meyer 
conmaentary,  Dibelius  as  above,  cp.  also  his  commentary  in 
Lietzmann's  Handhuch  z.  N.  T.,  85  f.,  and  in  Moffatt,  Introd.^  153. 
Dibelius  concludes  that  'if  we  attempt  to  give  the  child  a  name, 
we  can  speak  of  a  parallel  to  the  mysteries,  a  forerunner  of  gnostic 
tendencies  on  Jewish  Christian  soil.'  Moffatt,  p.  152,  recognizes 
in  it  semi-gnostic  tendencies;  but  agreeing  with  Dibelius  and 
others,  finds  in  it  indications  of  a  local  phase  of  some  syncretistic 

concerning  the  pleroma.  This,  p.  480,  formed  'in  contrast  to  the  lower,  void 
world  a  supersensual  realm  of  the  godhead,  in  which  the  forms  of  dazzling 
light,  of  its  aeons  and  syzygies,  i.  e.,  aK)n-pairs,  bring  life,  movement  and  or- 
ganization in  the  repose  of  the  Godhead.'  In  these  Epistles,  p.  481,  'that 
which  was  for  the  gnostics  made  up  of  a  motley  multiphcity  of  ranks  of  spirits, 
of  an  extended  series  of  aeons,  is  here  claimed  to  be  organically  summed  up 
in  the  One  Christ  as  the  concrete  central  point  of  the  realm  of  spirits.'  Simi- 
larly Pfleiderer,  Urchristm.,  II,  p.  216:  'The  church  teacher  could  not  combat 
more  simply  the  gnostic  syncretism  which  made  Christ  one  of  the  many 
spiritual  beings,  i.  e.,  aeons,  of  the  pleroma,  than  in  expressly  emphasizing 
that  the  whole  pleroma  dwells  in  Christ,  and  indeed  bodily;  that  is,  that  the 
person  of  the  historical  Saviour  is  the  embodiment,  the  totahty,  the  sole 
vehicle  and  mediator  of  all  divine  powers  of  life  and  salvation,  from  the  be- 
ginning.' 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  273 

theosophy  blending  disparate  elements  rife  within  the  popular 
religion  of  Phrygia,  with  practices  current  among  Jewish  circles 
sensitive  to  semi-Alexandrian  influences.  But  since  its  teachers 
had  a  footing  within  the  Christian  Church,  or  with  Dibelius,  p. 
153,  were  *von  Haus  aus'  Christians,  the  above  description  would 
seem  in  itself  to  point  to  a  definitely  gnostic  movement.  The 
hesitation  of  these  scholars  to  pronounce  the  Colossian  errorists  to 
be  gnostics  may  be  justified  when  the  construction  of  their  position 
is  made  principally  from  this  section  of  direct  attack,  2  ^-3  "*.  But 
when  this  section  is  taken  in  connection  with  the  prayer  for  gnosis 
and  the  succeeding  antignostic  doctrinal  statement  in  this  Colos- 
sian Letter;  and  also  with  the  three  similar  sections  in  the  other 
two  Letters  of  tke  group;  and  further  with  the  characteristics 
of  the  opponents  which  we  have  presented  from  the  earlier  Letters, 
we  can  clearly  recognize  in  the  Colossian  false  teaching  a  definite 
gnostic  system,  and  of  far  wider  sweep  than  that  of  an  ellipse,  to 
use  Dibelius'  figure,  having  angel  worship  and  asceticism  as  its 
foci. 

Turning  to  the  features  specially  emphasized  in  this  polemic 
section,  the  opposing  system  is  at  once  contrasted  generally  with 
the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  proclaimed  universally  in  the 
Gospel  tradition  of  Apostolic  preaching;  and  it  is  pronounced  to 
be  but  a  philosophy  and  vain  deceit  according  to  the  tradition  of 
men.  It  is  not  according  to  Christ,  as  he  is  presented  in  the 
mystery  of  God  in  Christ,  1,  13  ff.,  but  according  to  the  stoicheia 
of  the  cosmos,  the  ruling  cosmical  powers,  the  bearers  of  the 
pleroma,  cp.  I  Cor.  2,  6  ff.  The  two  systems  are  next  contrasted 
in  the  definite  teachings  as  to  Christ's  person  and  work  and  as  to 
the  means  and  result  of  the  believer's  appropriation  of  his  redemp- 
tion: in  2,  9.10  in  connection  with  Christ  and  the  pleroma,  and 
also  in  connection  with  the  perfection  and  fulfillment  of  Christians 
by  mystic  union  with  him,  eare  ev  avrco  TreTr\'qp(i)fjL€voL.  Summing 
up  1,  13  ff.,  and  in  antithesis  to  the  errorists'  human  tradition, 
kabbala  and  speculative  cosmology  and  angelology,  the  whole 
pleroma  is  again  affirmed  to  dwell  permanently  in  Christ;  and  is 
now  said  to  dwell  bodily,  and,  therefore,  in  Christ  really  incarnate. 
And  further,  redemption  and  victory  over  the  powers  of  evil  is 
won  by  the  heavenly  Christ,  crucified,  buried  and  risen.  By  direct 
mystic  union  with  the  heavenly,  dying  and  rising  Christ,  is  our 


274    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

forgiveness  and  our  perfection.  In  him  we  are  'filled  full/  We 
are  in  him,  moreover,  not  by  means  of  a  bodily  circumcision  but 
by  the  circumcision  of  Christ:  a  baptismal  death  and  resurrection 
with  him  into  a  new  covenant  union  of  our  lives  now  hidden  with 
the  Christ  in  God,  but  to  be  manifested  in  glory  at  Christ's  mani- 
festation at  the  Parousia,  3,  4. 

Not  only  is  this  last  assurance  directed  against  the  prevailing 
gnostic  denial  of  the  general  resurrection,  but  the  emphasis 
throughout  the  section  on  our  present  mystical  union  that  is  to  be 
consummated  by  'perfecting,'  cp.  1,  28,  is  in  antithesis  to  the 
opponents'  system  of  perfection.  What  stress  was  laid  by  them 
on  circumcision,  and  what  was  its  import  in  their  system,  cannot 
be  determined.  Whatever  attitude  Jewish  false  teachers  might 
take  concerning  the  Mosaic  law,  the  pre-Mosaic  institutions  of 
Sabbath  and  circumcision  were  distinguishing  marks  of  their 
Jewish  standing,  and  could  be  expected  to  have  a  place  in  a 
system  of  any  Jewish  character.  More  clearly  appears  in  this 
section  their  method  of  perfection  by  gnosis,  whose  enlightenment 
and  power  came  by  means  of  boasted  visions.  These,  cp.  Dibelius, 
p.  153,  may  be  the  method  of  communication  with  the  elemental 
ruling  stoicheia  of  the  cosmos,  and  be  the  basis  of  the  tradition 
and  empty  deceit,  2,  8,  to  no  purpose  puffing  them  up  by  the 
vovs  of  the  flesh.  Instead  of  perfecting  growth  in  fellowship 
with  the  Church's  communion  with  Christ  the  head,  this  system 
of  the  false  teachers  was  an  ^eXodprjaKeia  a  self-invented  in- 
dividual service,  a  self-imposed  humility  expressed  in  the  worship 
of  subordinate  angefic  bearers  of  the  pleroma,  in  order  to  share 
their  power  for  the  ascent  of  the  soul  from  the  evil  creation. 
Zahn's  contention  renewing  Ewald's  view,  that  this  worship  is 
not  offered  to  angels,  but  is  the  worship  which  the  angels  offer, 
seems  disproved  by  the  fact  that  in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon, 
dprjcTKela  is  always  followed  by  the  objective  genitive.  Yet  it  may 
be  possible  that  objective  worship  of  angels  would  lead  to  an  ideal 
of  a  life  of  abstinence  from  foods,  drink  and  marriage,  like  that  of 
angels.  In  any  case  the  outcome  of  the  volunteered  worship  was 
an  ascetic  system  and  a  ritual  observance  of  days.  In  this,  as 
based  on  their  empty  speculations  and  dualism,  the  Apostle  sees 
a  return  to  the  principle  of  legalism  as  opposed  to  the  freedom  of 
the  Spirit.    And  it  evokes  a  renewal  in  2,  14  ff.  of  the  gospel  of 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  275 

freedom  from  'the  bond  in  ordinances'  that  was  blotted  out  on 
the  Redeemer's  cross  and  in  his  absolute  triumph  there  over  the 
powers  of  evil.  The  religious  discipline  of  prescriptions  and 
ceremonial  observances  was  but  a  shadow  of  the  religion  of  free 
obedience  and  worship  in  the  Spirit,  an  outline  of  the  body  and 
reality  of  the  spiritual  religion  of  the  Christ  who  was  to  come. 

In  the  conclusion  of  the  section,  vss.  20-23,  the  outcome  of  this 
system  of  perfection  by  ascetic  observances  such  as  2,  21,  abstin- 
ence from  specific  food,  or  possibly  from  flesh,  wine  and  marriage, 
is  declared  to  be  Hhe  full  satisfaction  of  the  flesh.'    All  commenta- 
tors note  the  obscurity  of  the  grammatical  and  exegetical  con- 
nection of  this  phrase  with  the  preceding  series  of  parenthetical 
clauses  intermingling  compressed  statement  and  swift  repudiation 
of  the  opposing  system.    Adopting  the  construction  of  von  Soden 
we  can  regard  the  phrase  as  the  Apostle's  exposure  of  satisfaction 
of  the  lowest  side  of  human  nature  as  the  real  result  of  the  boasted 
X670J  <To<f>ias;  and  even  more  definitely,  we  may  consider  irXrjajjLOvri 
TTJs  aapKos  as  the  final  contrast  to  the  initial  Pauline  declaration 
2, 10  iare  ev  avTc^  xeTrXrypw/iewt.    Combining  the  references  to  the 
errorists'  system  of  perfection,  we  find  that  it  is  presented,  2,  4,  as 
before  in  I  Cor.  2,  4  and  Rom.  16,  18,  in  persuasiveness  of  speech, 
though  in  2,  8  and  18  they  make  spoil  of  believers  in  robbing 
them  of,  or  in  deciding  against  their  attainment  of,  the  prize  of 
their  high  calling  by  means  of  their  present  union  with  the  fullness 
of  Christ.    Their  system  is  opposed  as  being  only  a  human  tradi- 
tion and  speculation  resting  on  the  assumption  that  Christians 
are  still  living  in  a  cosmos  ruled  by  the  stoicheia  of  the  cosmos. 
It  is,  therefore,  a  denial  of  Christ's  victory  over  these  powers,  and 
of  the  freedom  of  the  Spirit  won  for  us  in  his  redemptive  death. 
Their    rules   for   perfection    by    ascetic    practices    are    directly 
opposed  to  Christ's  teaching  concerning  foods  in  Mk.  7,  18  ff. 
Their    gnosis    is    not    a  divine  spiritual   enlightenment,  but  a 
puffing  up  by  the  vovs  of  the  flesh  and  rests  on  empty  boasts 
of  visions  and  communications  with  elemental  world-rulers.     It 
is  besides  a  gnosis  which  bestows  no  real  spiritual  power.     It  has 
only  a  repute  of  wisdom,  X670J',  ov  hvvaixiv,  Chrysostom,  on  the 
«    basis   of   self-imposed   worship   and   humility,  and  of  unsparing 
H  treatment  of  the    body.      The  only  honor  which  the  observance 
H  of  their  precepts  brings,  is  'such  as  satisfied  the  carnal  nature; 


276    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

d<^€t5ta  ccojLiaTos  was  in  very  truth  TrXrjaiJLovii  Trjs  crapKbs,  Abbott, 
with  Von  Soden. 

The  'enigmatic  brevity'  of  the  collocation  of  'severity  to  the 
body*  and  'full  satisfaction  of  the  flesh'  recalls  the  constant  two- 
fold tendency  of  gnostic  ethics  resting  on  the  conception  of  matter 
as  the  principle  of  evil:  either  to  a  rigorous  repression  of  bodily 
life  as  interfering  with  perfection  of  the  spirit,  or  to  indifference 
to  the  satisfaction  of  its  impulses,  since  they  are  without  spiritual 
significance.  In  the  earlier  Epistles  the  gnosticizing  movement 
is  characterized  by  this  latter  libertine  indifference;  here  in 
Colossians  the  errorists  are  unmistakably  ascetics.  Yet  in  spite 
of  this  contrast  they  belong  to  the  same  movement,  in  view  both 
of  the  controlling  common  features  we  have  recognized,  and  also 
in  view  of  the  same  contrast  of  asceticism  and  libertinism  repre- 
sented in  the  later  divisions  found  in  the  hydra-heade'd  system  of 
second-century  gnosticism.  The  Colossian  errorists  might,  there- 
fore, be  considered  a  special  group  or  as  advocating  a  special 
phase  of  the  system.  But  the  statement  that  severity  to  the 
body  is  'for'  full  satisfaction  of  the  flesh,  coupled  with  the  fact 
that  repudiation  of  the  asceticism  of  2,  20-23  is  immediately  fol- 
lowed 3,  5  ff.  by  exhortations  against  sensual  indulgence  reveals  a 
closer  relation  between  gnostic  asceticism  and  licentiousness  than 
simply  that  of  two  subdivisions  of  a  general  movement.  In  some 
way  which  it  may  not  now  be  possible  to  determine  satisfactorily, 
but  which  the  data  of  Colossians  and  of  earlier  and  later  Epistles 
suggest,  the  principle  and  the  actual  practice  of  spurious  asceticism 
tended  ultimately  to  immorality.  In  I  Thess.  4,  4,  and  I  Cor.  6 
and  7  the  occasion  of  combining  injunctions  against  fornication 
with  commands  to  enter  into  and  maintain  marriage  relations,  is 
found  in  the  whole  contexts  to  be  more  than  the  need  of  counsel 
as  to  the  means  of  escaping  temptation  to  impurity.  The  passages 
seem  to  assume  and  to  reply  to  a  theory  of  disparagement  of 
marriage  which  was  held  in  conjunction  with  indifference  to  'full 
satisfaction  of  the  flesh.'  Similarly  in  the  later  description  of  the 
errorists  in  I  Tim.  4,  1  ff.,  abstinence  from  foods  and  marriage  is 
an  outstanding  feature  of  the  antinomian  inmiorality  combatted 
in  the  Pastorals.  Such  a  relation  of  false  asceticism  and  libertinism 
could  be  variously  conceived  as  that  of  reaction  under  inability 
to  bear  the  self-imposed  strain;  or  possibly  as  that  of  separate 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  277 

standards  for  distinct  classes  of  psychics  and  pneumatics;  or  more 
probably  the  combination  was  due  to  some  sophistry,  cp.  'knowing 
the  depths  of  Satan,'  Rev.  2,  24,  by  which  indulgence  was  made 
compatible  with  the  claim  of  the  enlightened  spirit's  conquest  of 
the  bodily  nature. 

The  closing  section  of  exhortation,  3,  1-4,  6,  presents  in  con- 
trast to  this  gnostic  system  of  perfection  and  its  failure  to  reach 
it,  the  Christian  goal,  pathway  and  power.  Not  by  spurious  as- 
cetic severity  to  the  body  but  in  mystic  union  with  the  risen 
Christ  who  died  unto  sin,  may  the  Colossians  kill  out  all  carnal 
affections,  3,  1-7;  may  put  off  the  sins,  vss.  8-11,  causing  divisions; 
and  in  contrast  to  the  divisive  spirit  of  the  false  teachers,  may  put 
on  the  new  man  renewed  unto  epignosis  of  the  Creator,  in  which 
life  of  spiritual  renewal  all  divisions  disappear  in  Christ  who  is 
all  in  all.  Positively  this  life  of  fellowship  is  to  be  developed  not 
by  self-imposed  worship  and  humility,  but  by  the  Christian 
graces  of  mutual  love,  with  the  peace  of  Christ  ruling  in  their 
hearts;  in  the  worship  of  his  Church;  in  due  subordination  within 
the  home;  and  in  a  walk  in  wisdom  towards  those  who  are  without, 
in  final  contrast  to  the  errorists'  false  spirit  of  emancipation  from 
authority. 

This  Epistle  attacking  the  whole  system  and  practice  of  gnostics 
whose  activity  has  been  reported  in  the  promising  field  of  a  Pauline 
church  amid  a  variety  of  syncretistic  cults,  was  naturally  needed 
in  the  adjacent  church  of  Laodicea.  It  is,  therefore,  to  be  sent 
thither  also,  4,  16.  From  thence,  moreover,  the  Colossians  are 
to  receive  an  additional  Letter  of  Paul,  which  will  supplement  the 
Letter  sent  directly  to  them.  The  acceptance  of  Ephesians  as 
genuine  commonly  leads  to  the  view  here  adopted,  that  it  is  the 
companion  letter  referred  to.  In  this  case  we  should  expect  to 
find  in  it  a  similar  interest  in  guarding  against  gnostic  teaching. 
The  method  of  such  defense  is,  however,  necessarily  affected  by 
the  fact  that  it  is  an  encyclical  addressed  to  the  churches  widely 
scattered  throughout  the  Province  of  Asia.  In  their  differing 
religious  situations  and  in  the  varied  methods  and  stages  of 
gnostic  activity  among  them,  the  Apostle's  treatment  of  it  in 
Ephesians  must  naturally  be  of  a  more  general  character  than 
in  his  Letter  to  the  single  Church  in  Colosse.  Hence  also  the 
fundamental  elements  of  Christian  truth  and  life  directly  exposed 


278    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

to  gnostic  perversion,  must  be  most  positively  emphasized  as  the 
safeguard  against  their  attack  on  the  faith,  hope,  morality,  order 
and  unity  of  the  Churches.  But  as  a  supplement  to  Colossians, 
it  must  also  have  a  special  feature  guarding  all  the  Asian  churches 
from  gnostic  influence;  and  at  the  same  time  a  feature  not  already 
developed  in  Colossians.  This  is  found  to  be  its  teaching  con- 
cerning the  Church  and  its  unity.  It  is  presented  both  in  closest 
relation  to  the  doctrinal  and  practical  teaching  of  the  two  Epistles; 
and  also,  as  definitely,  as  a  bulwark  against  the  separatist  spirit 
and  disruptive  tendency  of  the  gnostic  propaganda.  In  Col.  we 
have  only  the  statements:  1,  18  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  Body,  the 
Church;  and  in  2,  19  the  antithesis  to  the  self-imposed  worship 
of  the  errorists,  is  the  whole  Body  holding  fast  the  Head  and  sup- 
plied and  knit  together  by  the  joints  and  bands.  Upon  reading 
Ephesians,  the  Colossians  will  receive  the  supplementing  develop- 
ment of  these  summary  statements.  And  they  will  in  addition 
find  it  a  counterpart  of  his  direct  rebuttal  of  false  doctrine  in  their 
own  Epistle,  in  its  devotional  strains  of  positive  exposition  of 
Gospel  truth  and  life  to  enable  all  the  churches  of  Asia  to  withstand 
the  wiles  of  the  error. 

Against  the  usual  denial  of  a  controversial  element  in  Ephesians, 
Weinel,  Bib.  Theol.  438,  recognizes  that  4n  Ephesians  also,  the 
author  contends  against  gnostics  who  excite  distractions  in  the 
churches,  4,  14;  and  that  against  them  he  advocates  the  same 
doctrines  as  those  of  Colossians. '  In  agreement  with  this,  we  have 
previously  noticed  the  similarity  of  the  general  structure  of  both 
Epistles  in  their  common  emphasis  on  Christian  gnosis  in  the 
prayers,  and  in  the  positive  content  of  this  gnosis  in  the  revelation 
of  the  mystery  of  God  in  Christ.  We  may  further  remark  that 
Ephesians  in  its  prayer  supplements  Colossians  by  a  more  definite 
reference  to  the  'power'  as  well  as  to  the  enUghtment  of  Christian 
gnosis.  The  boast  of  the  errorists  to  be  alone  the  Suva  rot,  is 
silenced  by  the  Apostle's  confident  prayers,  in  1,  19,  that  the 
spiritual  enlightenment  of  his  readers  in  the  epignosis  of  God  will 
include  a  knowledge  of  the  exceeding  greatness  of  his  power  to 
us-ward  who  believe,  according  to  the  working  of  the  strength  of 
his  might;  in  3,  14-21,  that  by  the  gift  of  this  fourfold  divine 
power,  in  the  indwelling  of  the  Christ,  they  may  know  the  love  of 
Christ  which  passes  gnosis,  that  they  may  be  filled  full  unto  all  the 


I 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  279 

pleroma  of  God;  and  he  closes  his  Letter  with  the  exhortation  thus 
to  be  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  his  might  by  putting  on 
the  whole  armor  of  God.  This  prayer  for  power  is  besides  the 
climax  of  the  prayer  1,  18  for  gnosis  of  the  Christian  eschatology 
rejected  by  the  errorists:  that  they  may  know  what  is  the  hope  of 
God's  calling  and  what  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  his  inheritance 
among  the  saints.  This  hope  and  inheritance  rests,  vs.  20,  as  in 
I  Thess.  4, 13  If.;  I  Cor.  15,  20  ff.,  on  God's  resurrection  and  heav- 
enly exaltation  of  the  dead  Christ,  with  whom  we  are  in  direct 
union  by  spiritual  resurrection  with  him,  2,  6;  and  we  have  now  the 
gift  of  the  Spirit,  1,  14,  as  the  earnest  of  the  glory  of  the  inherit- 
ance still  awaiting  us. 

Surveying  the  positive  doctrinal  statements,  we  mark  that  the 
antignostic  christology  of  Colossians  is  expressed  devotionally  in 
the  opening  doxology:  the  preexistence  of  Christ;  the  Father's 
eternal  purpose  to  gather  up  in  one,  the  incarnate  redeeming  and 
glorified  Messiah,  in  the  fullness  of  the  times,  the  heavenly  and  the 
earthly  universe.  Hence  1,  20  ff.  as  in  Colossians  his  supremacy 
over  every  conceivable  order  of  angels,  over  the  worlds  of  nature, 
over  the  Church  of  humanity  redeemed  in  him  its  head  and  sole 
source  of  life  and  growth.  This  redemption,  freedom  and  universal 
salvation  is  2,  1  ff.,  as  in  Col.  1,  20-23  against  opposing  teaching, 
already  won  by  his  death  and  resurrection.  And  again  docetic 
denials  of  his  incarnation  and  passion  are  repelled  by  the  emphasis 
on  this  redemption  in  his  flesh,  by  the  Cross  and  in  the  blood  of  the 
Christ;  while  the  appropriation  of  the  redemption  by  mystic  union 
with  him  is  declared  in  the  recurring  characteristic  phrase  iv 

Supplementary  to  these  common  doctrinal  features  of  the  two 
Epistles  is  the  special  emphasis  on  the  Church  and  its  unity, 
2,  11-22;  3,  6  ff.  The  earUer  Epistles  are  found  to  have  the  same 
interest  in  this  goal  of  a  divinely  effected  human  fellowship  and 
brotherhood  in  a  common  faith,  life,  order  and  work,  which  the 
divisive  spirit  of  the  gnostic  movement  constantly  endangered. 
This  unity  is  here  viewed  as  effected  upon  the  removal,  by  Christ's 
redemptive  death,  of  the  fundamental  division  of  humanity  into 
Jew  and  Gentile,  who  both  have  now  their  direct  access  by  Christ 
in  one  Spirit  unto  the  Father.  It  is  further,  in  contrast  to  the 
gnostic  system  based  on  empty  visions,  a  union  of  men  in  one 


280    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Church  and  Temple  of  God  which  has  been  both  revealed  to 
Apostles  and  prophets,  3,  5,  in  the  mystery  of  God,  and  is  also, 
2,  20  ff.,  founded  and  built  upon  the  Gospel  tradition  and  ministry 
of  these  Apostles  and  prophets.  The  opening  section  of  the  suc- 
ceeding exhortation,  4, 1-16,  manifests  Paul's  interest  in  warding  off 
the  disruptive  influences  of  gnostic  propaganda  within  this  Church, 
by  his  calls  to  zealous  preservation  of  the  sevenfold  unity  of  the 
one  Body,  vs.  5f.,  of  which  Christ  is  the  head,  16  f.,  and  which 
grows  by  means  of  his  gifts  of  ministry,  7  ff.,  for  its  upbuilding,  until 
we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  epignosis  of  the 
Son  of  God  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  the 
Christ. 

Paul's  antithetic  reference  in  this  section  to  gnostic  repudiation 
of  the  authority  and  function  of  the  Church's  fellowship  and 
ministry,  is  evident  from  his  insertion  of  a  description  of  his  op- 
ponents in  vs.  14.  It  has  the  central  position  among  the  con- 
trasted clauses  of  the  single  sentence  of  six  verses,  11-16,  con- 
cerning the  Church  and  ministry,  in  which  too  he  deals  with 
several  characteristic  gnostic  terms.  The  disruptive  activity  of 
the  opponents  is  in  contrast  to  that  of  the  Church's  ministry, 
vss.  12.13,  for  the  perfecting  joining  together  of  the  saints  and  the 
building  up  of  the  Body  of  Christ,  cp.  II  Cor.  13,  10;  in  contrast 
also  to  the  still  unattained  goal:  the  'oneness'  that  comes  from  the 
faith  and  epignosis  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  riXeios  avrjp,  the  measure 
of  the  mature  stature  of  the  pleroma  of  Christ.  In  spite  of  their 
boasted  offers  of  perfection,  they  and  their  followers  are  really 
vi)Tnoi,  immature  and  with  no  means  of  growth.  The  effect  of  the 
false  teaching  is  unsettlement  and  disruption,  instead  of  the  unity 
and  upbuilding  on  the  immovable  foundation,  Col.  1,  23;  2,  7. 
Using  the  figure  with  which  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  closes, 
they  are  wave-tossed  and  wind-driven  by  the  teaching  which 
is  not  only  'of  men'  cp.  Col.  2,  8,  but  in  the  'sleight'  of  men:  the 
gamester's  artifice  in  casting  or  upturning  the  dice  fraudulently, 
ut  semper  appareat  quod  ipsi  placet,  Bengel;  or  as  in  the  parallel 
II  Cor.  4,  2,  SoXoOvrcs,  corrupting  the  word  of  God.  The  mode  of 
teaching,  as  constantly  in  his  allusions  to  it,  is  in  craftiness  with  a 
view  to  the  perversion  of  the  Error.'^    It  is  the  opposite  of  the 

"  M€^o5ta  a  word  found  only  here  and  in  6,  11  is  not  M^oSos,  the  system 
of  error  or  the  wily  method  of  the  Devil;  but  following  the  most  common  use 


I 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  281 

Gospel  manifestation  of  the  truth  both  in  teaching  and  in  a  moral 
life  of  love,  which  is  the  one  pathway  of  growth  mito  maturity  and 
perfection;  unto  Christ  the  head,  as  members  of  the  one  Body  of 
Christ,  vs.  12,  'fitly  framed  together  and  compacted  by  every  joint 
of  supply '  of  the  one  Spirit  of  Christ  through  his  gifts  of  grace,  vs.  7, 
in  the  fellowship  and  ministry  of  his  Church,  vss.  7-11. 

Proceeding  to  other  topics  of  exhortation  selected  from  the 
primitive  instruction  in  which  they  learned  Christ,  and  specifically 
in  contradiction  of  docetism,  'as  he  is  in  truth  in  Jesus'  W.  H.  mg., 
he  first  warns  4,  25-5,  2,  in  the  interest  of  unity  and  as  being 
members  one  of  another,  against  sins  leading  to  divisions  and 
thwarting  upbuilding.  With  the  following  exhortation  against 
sins  of  impurity,  5,  3-14,  is  the  warning  concerning  deception  as  to 
their  sinfulness  and  punishment.  It  is  a  deception  wrought 
through  empty  discourses,  vs.  6,  of  libertine  teachers,  who  as 
'sons  of  disobedience'  assert  on  principle  their  emancipation 
from  authority  even  in  the  sphere  of  morals,  and  whose 
acts  in  secret  it  is  disgraceful  to  relate.  These  charges  could 
not  be  made  against  Jewish  or  judaizing  opponents.  Nor  can 
the  reference  be  to  heathen  immoraUty,  which  he  had  already 
described  in  4,  17  ff.  in  different  terms,  and  which  his  readers  had 
definitively  renounced.  Since  then  their  fellowship  with  the  sons 
of  disobedience,  5,  7,  is  a  present  danger,  and  from  no  other  assign- 
able source,  we  are  led  to  conclude  that  these  deceivers  of  vs.  6  are 

of  nera  in  composition  to  express  reversal  and  transmutation,  signifies  the 
perversions  and  reversals  of  the  truth  by  the  false  teachers.  So  Lightfoot 
decides  in  his  comment  on  Polycarp,  Philippians,  7.  But  even  more  defi- 
nitely it  seems  to  refer  to  perversion  of  the  moral  teaching  of  the  Way.  For 
on  the  one  hand  Polycarp  uses  the  verb  in  this  technical  reference  to  perverted 
moral  doctrine  and  practice,  in  his  fourfold  description  of  the  errorist  who  con- 
fesses not  the  incarnation  and  the  atonement;  and  who  fiedoSev'jfi  tcl  ^6yt,a 
Tov  Kuptou  Trpos  ras  iSias  eTidvfJLlaSf  and  says  there  is  neither  resurrection 
nor  judgment.  On  the  other  hand,  the  exhortations  on  moral  topics  of  the 
didache  in  Ephes.  4, 17-6,  9  are  both  introduced  and  concluded  by  the  warnings 
against  neOoBia  m  4, 14  and  6, 11.  In  II  Sam.  19,  27  the  LXX  uses  the  verb  to 
express  the  perversion  of  the  truth  by  the  statement  of  16,  3.  If  this  suggestion 
that  the  reference  in  Ephesians  is  to  perversion  of  the  Way  of  the  didache  is 
tenable,  fJLedodla  Trjs  irXavrjs  would  have  a  parallel  m  Hbws.  13, 9:  StSaxatS 
TTOtKtXats  Kal  ^epaLS,  where  ttolkIXos  could  have  its  frequent  meaning  of 
change. 


282    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  libertines  of  the  earlier  Epistles  and  the  false  teachers  of 

4,  14. 

Thus,  as  is  often  recognized,  the  warnings  in  Ephesians  are 
directed  against  gnostic  Ubertinism,  while  Colossians  warns 
directly  of  its  spurious  asceticism.  Yet  in  Colosse  where  this 
phase  of  the  error  was  in  the  forefront,  it  was  related  to  'full 
satisfaction  of  the  flesh'  as  its  ultimate  issue.  In  Ephesians, 
addressed  to  the  whole  group  of  Asian  churches,  this  outcome  and 
general  feature  of  Ubertinism  would  naturally  be  selected  for 
warning.  But  the  Colossian  polemic  against  asceticism  is  not 
entirely  without  parallel,  even   in   Ephesians.     Here  we  meet, 

5,  25-33,  with  an  extended  vindication  of  the  holiness  of  marriage 
as  divinely  instituted  and  as  pointing  in  its  unity  to  the  absolute 
union  of  Christ  and  his  Church.  In  the  absence  of  any  neglect  or 
disparagement  of  marriage  by  Jews,  judaizers  or  Gentile  converts, 
such  an  elaborated  defense  imphes  a  detraction  of  the  institution 
which  could  be  assigned  to  some  group  of  ascetic  Jewish  gnostics, 
as  in  Colosse,  misinterpreting  on  duaUstic  principles  and  by  al- 
legorizing, the  opening  chapters  of  Genesis  to  whose  definite  state- 
ments the  Apostle  appeals.  His  repetition  in  this  connection  of  the 
figure  of  Christ  as  the  head  of  the  Church  and  Saviour  of  the  body, 
links  this  vindication  of  marriage  with  his  exposure  of  the  teach- 
ing of  error  in  4,  12  ff.  We  may  notice  also  that  the  teaching  con- 
cerning marriage  is  part  of  the  exhortation  to  subordination  in  the 
household,  checking  as  in  Colossians  the  errorists'  false  spirit  of 
emancipation  from  authority. 

The  Colossian  readers  of  this  Epistle  would  therefore  find  in  it 
a  supplement  to  Paul's  polemic  against  gnostic  teaching  in  his 
Letter  to  themselves.  Philippians  written  probably  shortly  after, 
contains  along  with  other  features  a  polemic  against  the  same  type 
of  error.  As  in  the  two  Epistles  just  examined,  the  references  to  it 
are  constructed  in  the  same  method :  in  the  prayer  for  true  gnosis, 
which  we  have  already  considered;  in  the  positive  christological 
statement;  and  in  the  description  of  the  false  teachers  accompany- 
ing the  direct  warning  against  them. 

The  doctrinal  statement  grows  out  of  the  controlling  interest  of 
the  Letter  in  the  unity  and  fellowship  of  this  church  which  is  his 
joy  and  crown.  He  had  no  fear  that  external  persecution,  1,  27-30, 
would  weaken  this  unity.    His  prayer  and  anticipation  was  that 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  283 

they  were  meeting  it  by  standing  in  one  spirit,  with  one  soul 
striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel.  His  joy  would  be 
be  fulfilled,  2,  1  ff.,  if  in  their  internal  church  Ufe  they  would  be  of 
the  same  mind  and  love,  of  one  mind,  of  Christ's  mind.  The 
possible  dangers  to  such  a  unity  being  faction  and  eagerness  for 
empty  glory,  he  exhorts  to  an  unselfish  unity  by  the  example  of 
Christ.  The  profundity  and  fullness  of  its  dogmatic  statement 
reflect  his  interest  in  safeguarding  them  from  a  false  christology 
based  on  Kevo8o^la  and  issuing  in  a  divisive  spirit  of  faction. 
Parallel  to  the  revelations  of  the  mystery  of  God  in  Christ,  in  the 
two  preceding  Epistles,  its  positive  statements  are  at  the  same 
time  denials  of  fundamental  errors  concerning  Christ  with  which 
we  have  already  met.  Against  those  who  divided  the  Christ  or 
reduced  the  heavenly  Christ  to  a  rank  among  the  celestial  orders, 
it  declares  that  Christ  Jesus  subsisted  in  the  form  of  God  and  em- 
tied  himself  of  the  glorious  mode  of  existence  on  an  equahty 
with  God.  His  real  incarnation  is  included  in  the  statement  that 
he  took  the  form,  /iop<^i7,  of  a  servant.  And  any  special  docetic 
theory  of  the  union  of  the  Christ  and  Jesus  only  from  the  baptism 
and  until  before  the  passion,  is  repelled,  since  the  form  of  a  servant 
was  taken  when  he  came  into  existence  in  the  likeness  of  men,  and 
was  continued  even  to  death,  yea  the  death  of  the  cross.  His 
exaltation  by  the  Father  above  every  name,  as  in  Eph.  1,  21  and 
Col.  2,  10,  follows  upon  his  humbling  himself,  when  'in  fashion  as 
a  man '  he  became  obedient,  even  unto  death.  The  homage  of  the 
celestial,  terrestrial  and  subterrestrial  worlds  in  is  the  human 
name  of  Jesus:  in  the  confession,  cp.  I  Cor.  12,  3;  Rom.  10,  9, 
Kupios  *Irj(Tovs  Xptcrros. 

The  probabiUty  that  these  doctrinal  emphases  were  in  view  of 
an  opposing  system  is  strengthened  by  the  special  reference  to 
apirayfjids.  We  are  not  here  concerned  with  the  extended  discus- 
sions of  this  term  and  with  the  various  renderings  of  vss.  6.7: 
whether  with  Gifford  'glory  and  majesty  with  God  was  not  deemed 
a  prize  to  be  held  fast ' ;  or  as  in  the  A.  V.,  was  not  thought  a  robbery 
or  usurpation;  or  with  Dibelius,  as  a  spoil  to  be  seized.  The 
humiliation  of  Christ  was  expressed  in  the  non-polemic  passage, 
II  Cor.  8,  9,  in  the  simple  statement,  'being  rich,  he  for  your  sakes 
became  poor. '  The  fact,  however,  that  here  he  uses  this  unique 
form  of  expression,  not  tenaciously  grasping  a  prize,  or  not  re- 


284    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

garding  its  retention  as  an  usurpation,  or  not  striving  to  obtain  it 
by  force,  suggests  that  its  peculiar  use  especially  in  its  connection 
with  the  other  safeguarding  statements  of  the  section,  was  in 
antithesis  to  a  christology  in  which  some  such  view  was  involved.^^ 

In  addition  to  the  prayer  for  true  gnosis  and  the  christological 
statement  which  seems  framed  to  guard  against  a  disrupting 
system,  we  have  as  in  the  two  earher  Epistles  of  the  group,  a 
direct  description  of  the  errorists  in  chapter  3.  Most  commonly 
they  have  been  adjudged  to  be  Judaizers.  DibeUus  on  the  con- 
trary represents  the  view  that  they  are  Jewish  agitators.  Moffatt 
more  generally  considers  them  to  be  Jews  or  Jewish  Christian 
agitators.  Bacon,  Paul,  368  ff.,  sees  in  them  a  type  of  Judaizers 
yet  distinct  from  those  in  Galatians,  and  he  points  out  their  re- 
semblances to  the  errorists  in  Ephesians  and  Colossia-ns.  While 
Zahn  restricted  the  legalistic  references  to  Judaizers  to  vss.  2-16 
and  referred  the  immorality  of  vss.  17  ff.  to  Philippian  Christians, 
Lightfoot  found  in  the  two  sections  of  the  chapter  two  distinct 
groups  of  errorists,  Judaizers  and  hbertines.  B.  Weiss,  Phphf, 
221  ff.,  following  some  much  earlier  critics  recognizes  three  groups 
in  the  three  epithets  of  vs.  2,  the  counterparts  of  those  who  rejoice 
in  the  Lord.  The  Dogs  are  immoral  heathen;  the  Evil  Workers 
are  teachers  with  unworthy  and  selfish  motives,  such  as  the 
Roman  clergy  in  1,  15  ff.;  the  Concision  are  unbeUeving  Jews,  not 
Judaizers. 

We  find,  however,  that  in  this  chapter  the  Apostle  has  in  mind  but 
one  set  of  opponents,  and  further  we  hold  that  the  initial  denuncia- 
tions are  against  one  and  the  same  party.  Their  abruptness  and 
incisiveness  has  been  made  possible,  because  they  are  summaries 

"Among  the  conjectures  attempting  to  account  for  the  expression  was 
Baur's  Paid,  II,  45  ff.,  that  it  betrayed  the  influence  of  the  second-century 
Valentinian  myth  of  Sophia  striving  to  become  one  with  the  Father.  But 
the  failure  of  his  attack  upon  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistle  and  his  admission 
that  the  reference  of  the  gnostic  myth  to  Christ  in  a  moral  sense,  as  in  the 
text,  is  meaningless,  led  to  the  rejection  of  his  theory.  Pfleiderer,  however, 
renews  it,  Urchatm.,  I,  181.229,  in  regarding  vss.  6.7  as  a  later  interpolation 
based  on  the  myth  of  Sophia  or  of  the  world-ruler  Jaldabaoth's  desire  to  dis- 
place the  highest  God.  Dibelius,  Geisterwell,  105  f.,  rejects  this  in  favor  of 
some  possible  contrasted  reference  to  the  envy  and  strife  of  the  spirits  of  the 
firmament  described  in  the  descent  of  Christ  in  Aacensio  Jeaaice,  10,  29  ff. 
Emesti  in  his  reply  to  Baur  proposed  the  contrast  of  the  first  Adam  attempting 
*  to  be  as  Gods,'  Gen.  2,  6  cp.  22. 


i 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  285 

of  the  Apostle's  frequent  earlier  descriptions  of  those  'of  whom  he 
had  told  them  often, '  vs.  18.  Since  he  had  visited  PhiUppi  shortly- 
after  writing  I  Cor.  and  had  probably  written  II  Cor.  there,  and 
had  revisited  the  Church  unmediately  after  writing  Romans,  it 
would  evidently  be  the  antinomian  errorists  of  these  Epistles  of 
whom  he  had  thus  often  spoken  to  the  Philippians.  The  reference 
to  Jews  in  the  third  epithet  should  not  therefore  mislead  us  to 
suppose  that  Paul  would  apply  to  them  as  such,  the  terms  dogs  and 
evil  workers,  or  would  apply  them  to  judaizing  Christians,  who  made 
up  the  Church  of  Palestine.  Nor  as  Apostle  of  the  heathen  and 
here  writing  to  heathen,  would  he  speak  of  them  as  dogs.  Its  use 
here  is  based  on  its  Jewish  application  to  heathen  on  their  idea  of 
the  repulsive,  unclean  associations  of  dogs  as  the  symbol  of  abom- 
inable immorahty.  Paul's  definite  reference  to  'the  Dogs,'  in 
connection  with  his  following  description,  vss.,  17  ff.,  of  those  who 
glory  in  their  shame,  alludes  therefore  to  the  libertinism  of  error- 
ists well  known  to  the  Phihppians.  The  same  class  is  similarly- 
denounced  in  the  Pastorals  as  jSSeXu/crol,  Tit.  1,  16,  foul  and 
detestable.  In  the  sin  Usts  in  Rev.  the  i^b^vyixivoi  of  21,  8  and 
27  seem  to  be  those  referred  to  as  'the  dogs'  of  22,  15;  and  to  the 
antinomian  libertines  of  II  Pet.  2  is  applied  the  proverb:  the  dog 
has  returned  to  his  own  vomit. 

The  next  term  'the  evil  workers,'  passes  from  their  immorality 
to  their  teaching.  The  Apostle  could  not  refer  to  Jewish  or  judais- 
tic  obedience  to  the  holy  law  as  evil  work.  His  own  Jewish  obe- 
dience is  not  described  as  evil  but  as  blameless:  it  had  been  'gain' 
but  now  is  regarded  as  loss,  but  only  in  comparison  with  the 
excellency  of  the  gnosis  of  Christ.  Hence  the  evil  workers  of 
Phihppians  are  not  observers  of  the  law,  but  as  the  deceitful  work- 
ers of  II  Cor.  11, 13  are  teachers  fashioning  themselves  into  apostles 
of  Christ  and  ministers  of  righteousness.  DibeUus  regarding  them 
as  Jews  adopts  Bultmann's  rendering,  'Werkhelden,'  champions 
of  works.  But  in  all  three  of  Paul's  independent  uses  of  the 
word,  as  the  Lexicons  exhibit,  he  refers  to  teachers:  here  and  in  II 
Cor.  to  false  teachers,  and  in  II  Tim  2,  15  in  contrast  to  them 
Timothy  is  to  be  epyaTrjs  aveiraiax^^Tos  by  'handling  aright  the 
word  of  truth.'  The  same  usage  and  practically  the  same  term, 
ipyhiTai  abLKias  in  Luke,  which  the  Syriac  versions  render  'work- 
ers of  falsehood,'  and  ol  Ipya^bixevoi  rifv  avoixiav  in  Mtw.  and 


286    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

LXX,  is  applied  to  the  false  prophets  and  teachers  in  the  Sennon 
on  the  Mount. 

These  immoral  false  teachers  are  further  characterized  as  the 
KaraTOfiri,  whereby  is  fixed  their  Jewish  provenance  and  boasts. 
This  term,  however,  in  its  connection  with  the  other  two  epithets, 
with  the  succeeding  description  of  the  opponents  and  with  the 
situation  of  the  Philippians,  makes  impossible  a  reference  here  to 
unbeUeving  Jews.  Their  presence  in  PhiUppi,  or  their  propaganda 
there,  is  improbable  in  view  of  the  antisemitism  displayed  against 
Paul  himself  in  Acts  16,  20.  Moreover,  Jewish  missionaries  in  the 
Dispersion  would  not  emphasize  as  here,  circumcision,  but  the 
usual  topics  to  attract  godfearers  as  shown  in  Chap.  IV.  It  would 
besides  be  superfluous  to  warn  the  PhiUppians  of  persecution  by 
Jews  or  at  Jewish  instigation,  of  which  they  themselves  would  have 
more  direct  knowledge;  which  could  not  be  warded  off* by  any  such 
Gentile  claim  as  vs.  3,  '  we  are  the  circumcision ' ;  and  which  would 
not  be  traced  back  to  Jewish  circiuncision  or  concision,  but  as  in 
I  Thess.  2,  14  to  Jewish  hatred  of  Christianity.  Nor  for  similar 
reasons  can  *  concision'  refer  to  Judaizers,  although  the  reference  to 
justification  has  led  many  to  this  opinion.  For,  in  general,  there  are 
no  indications  of  judaistic  agitation  in  PhiUppi,  where  Paul's 
apostoUc  authority  was  unquestioned;  and  while  the  same  doctrine 
of  justification  as  in  Gal.  and  in  the  parallels  in  Romans  is  affirmed, 
yet  it  is  here  presented  with  a  different  interest.  More  especially, 
the  denunciations  of  the  inunorality  and  false  doctrine  referred  to 
in  vss.  18  ff . ,  could  not  possibly  apply  to  judaizing  Christians. 

When,  however,  we  recognize  in  these  Jews  the  antinomian  Jews 
of  II  Cor.  11, 22  of  whom  the  Apostle  could  have  spoken  often  to  the 
PhiUppians,  we  obtain  a  view  of  the  opponents  in  Php.  3  which 
unifies  both  the  threefold  description  of  vs.  2  and  its  development 
in  the  rest  of  the  chapter  in  reverse  order:  concision,  vss.  3-11; 
evil  workers,  vss.  12-16;  dogs,  vss.  17-19.  They  are  first  de- 
nounced as  the  concision  in  connection  with  their  boasts  to  be 
Jews  and  of  consequent  superiority  as  representatives  of  the  real 
religion  of  Israel  and  as  ministers  of  its  Messiah.  It  is  suggestive 
that  the  feature  of  the  Jewish  standing  emphasized  by  them  or  by 
Paul  is  not  their  legalism  but  their  circumcision,  the  pre-Mosaic 
institution.  We  have  no  data  for  determining  how  they  definitely 
exploited  circumcision  in  their  system,  save  that  its  spiritual  signif- 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  287 

icance  and  the  realization  of  the  fullness  of  its  meaning  and  privi- 
lege in  Christian  baptism  was  ignored.  Here  in  vs.  3  f.  it  is  to 
them  boasting  and  confidence  in  flesh,  even  in  fleshly  mutilation. 
In  Col.  2,  11  it  is  contrasted  with  a  circumcision  not  made  with 
hands,  cp.  Eph.  2,  11.  That  it,  however,  gave  them  superiority  as 
supereminent  apostles,  is  denied  by  Paul's  claim  II  Cor.  11,  22,  to 
have  equal  standing  as  Hebrew,  IsraeUte  and  Son  of  Abraham;  and 
as  minister  of  Christ  to  have  a  higher  standing,  vwep  iyo).  But  here 
in  Philippians  3,  4.5,  he  asserts  himself  to  be  more  truly  a  Jew 
than  his  opponents,  ^70;  ^aWov,  We  observe,  however,  that  the 
specific  claims  of  truer  Judaism  which  he  makes,  could,  apart  from 
the  persecution  of  the  Church,  probably  be  equalled  by  many  a 
Pharisaic  judaizer;  and  we  submit  the  view  that  they  therefore 
form  a  contrast  of  his  complete  and  thoroughgoing  Judaism  to  the 
distorted  and  attenuated  Judaism  of  the  errorists,  which  was 
adulterated  with  the  syncretism  environing  them  in  the  Dispersion. 
As  they  made  boast  of  the  circumcision  which  they  could  not  deny, 
Paul  too  emphasizes  his  own  circumcision  on  the  eighth  day  as  of 
true  IsraeUte  stock,  in  the  loyal  tribe  of  Benjamin,  and  though  of 
the  Dispersion,  a  Hebrew-speaking  Son  of  Hebrews.  But  far  more, 
and  with  probable  reference  to  their  sophistical  antinomianism, 
he  was  a  Hebrew  Kara  vdfjLov :  of  strictest  interpretation  of  it  as  a 
Pharisee,  of  intensest  zeal  for  it  as  a  persecutor,  of  blameless 
obedience  as  regards  legal  righteousness. 

Yet  the  gains  of  this  full  Judaism  with  the  advantage  of  being  a 
Jew  and  with  the  profit  of  circumcision,  Rom.  3,  1 ;  9,  1-5,  he  had 
counted  as  loss  that  he  might  win  Christ.  In  his  ensuing  reference 
in  vs.  9  to  these  two  contrasted  relations,  he  uses,  as  we  should 
expect  him  to  use  as  in  Eph.  2,  4-8;  Tit.  3,  4;  II  Tim.  1,  9  f.,  the 
terms  already  wrought  out  in  controversy  with  judaizers  maintain- 
ing the  general  position  of  Judaic  privilege  and  righteousness  by 
law.^^   In  contrast  to  having  any  righteousness  of  his  own,  which  is 

^  The  similar  boasts  of  Jewish  standing  in  II  Cor.  11,  18  ff.  have  been 
found  to  be  made,  as  here  in  Php.  3,  not  by  Judaizers  but  by  Jewish  gnostic 
errorists.  In  the  polemic  against  the  Judaeo-gnostic  heresy,  Col.  2,  11  flP.  and 
its  parallel  Eph.  2,  11  flP.,  the  claim  of  being  the  true  circumcision  and  its 
development  by  references  to  justification  in  mystic  union  with  the  dead 
and  risen  Christ,  shows  that  in  Php.  3,  2-10  the  similar  allusions  to  circum- 
cision and  justification  are  not  made  with  reference  to  Judaizing  but  to 
gnostic  opponents. 


288    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

of  the  law,  he  is  now  found  in  Christ,  having  God's  righteousness  by- 
faith  in  Christ.  Wherefore  in  vs.  3  is  his  boast  in  Christ  against 
any  and  every  form  of  Jewish  confidence  in  flesh.  And  in  vss.  8-1 1 , 
this  Pauline  boast  is  seen  to  be  not  against  Judaizers,  in  the  fact 
that  the  completing  statements  are  not  concerned  with  their  posi- 
tions but  with  the  fundamental  issues  of  his  controversy  with 
Jewish  gnostic  opponents  of  the  earUer  Letters:  the  transcendence 
of  the  gnosis  of  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  cp.  Col.  2,  2.8;  Eph.  3,  3; 
4,  14;  and  the  gnosis  of  him  in  fellowship  with  his  passion  and 
death  and  in  the  bvvaiiis  of  his  resurrection,  as  the  means  of  attain- 
ing the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  in  direct  antithesis  to  his  oppo- 
nents' denial  of  the  passion  and  resurrection  of  the  heavenly  Christ 
and  of  a  general  resurrection. 

He  is  thus  led,  vss.  12-16,  to  expose  them  as  the  'evil  workers' 
of  vs.  2.  The  work  has  been  explained  above  as  that  6f  a  teaching 
and  prophetic  ministry.  The  spurious  prophetic  teaching  we  con- 
cluded was  in  view  in  the  christological  passage,  2,  5  ff.  It  is  here 
in  view  from  the  eschatological  standpoint,  from  which  we  first 
recognized  it  in  the  Thessalonian  Epistles.  His  direct  repudiation 
of  it,  vs.  12,  13,  discloses  it  as  a  robbing  beUevers  of  their  prize. 
Col.  2,  18,  viz.,  the  hope  of  their  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,  Ppns.  3, 13,  and  of  the  wealth  of  the  glory  of  their  inheritance, 
Eph.  1,  18,  when  at  Christ's  manifestation  at  the  Parousia,  they 
too  shall  be  manifested  with  him  in  glory.  Col.  3,  4.  Correlated 
with  denials  of  these  Last  Things  was,  as  in  the  prior  Epistles, 
their  false  teaching  of  present  perfection  in  a  Kingdom  already 
fully  come,  I  Cor.  4,  8,  in  the  coming  and  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  And 
that  they  were  r^etot  by  their  alleged  possession  of  gnosis,  cp. 
I  Cor.  14,  20;  Col.  1,  28;  Eph.  4,  13  f.;  appears  in  the  Apostle's 
disavowal  of  his  own  perfection,  since  he  must  still  press  on  to 
apprehend  3,  12,  KaraXd/3w,  as  in  Eph.  3, 18,  KaroKa^iadai,  with  all 
saints,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  surpassing  gnosis.  The 
same  denial  that  t6  Ti\f:iov  was  come,  with  the  same  emphasis  on 
the  related  fact  that  our  gnosis  was  still  in  part,  and  the  same  ideal 
of  apprehending  and  knowing  as  we  have  been  apprehended  and 
known  by  Christ  Jesus,  when  at  last  we  see  face  to  face,  was  in 
I  Cor.  13,  his  teaching  opposing  the.  perfect,  the  spiritual,  the 
possessors  of  gnosis  in  Corinth. 

Obviously  such  perfectionism  based  on  a  spurious  emancipating 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  289 

gnosis  which  repudiated  the  moral  invigoration  of  the  Christian 
hope,  endangered  the  moral  Ufe  influenced  by  these  Jewish  evil 
workers.  The  Apostle  exhorts  therefore  not  only  to  a  following 
in  his  own  moral  walk,  but  in  the  concluding  vss.  17-21,  gives  a 
denunciatory  warning  of  the  moral  abominations  and  doctrinal 
perversions  of  the  errorists  by  developing  his  characterization  of 
them  as  *  The  Dogs '  in  vs.  2.  Their  immorality  was  the  outcome  of 
their  enmity,  not  to  the  Christ  in  view  of  their  boast  'I  am  of 
Christ'  which  Paul  denied,  Rom.  16,  18,  but  of  enmity  to  his  cross. 
This  would  appear  in  their  rejection  of  the  redemptive,  emancipat- 
ing and  renovating  efficacy  of  the  death  of  one  who  to  them  was 
the  abandoned  Jesus,  and  in  their  refusal  'to  be  conformed  to  his 
death '  in  dying  with  him  to  sin  and  rising  with  him  to  newness  of 
life.  There  was  equally  an  inevitable  outcome  of  immorality  from 
the  system  of  redemption  by  antinomian  gnosis  with  which  they 
displaced  the  cross.  The  goal  of  their  immoral  walk  is  perdition. 
In  spite  of  their  boasts  to  be  the  spiritual,  to  be  glorified  with  gifts 
of  power,  to  be  exalted  by  visions  and  revelations  to  celestial 
spheres,  they  are  fleshly:  their  god  is  their  belly;  they  are  sensual, 
and  glory  in  their  shame;  their  interests  are  in  things  of  the  earth. 
But  in  the  final  antithesis  to  them,  the  PauUne  Christians  seek  the 
things  above,  since  their  citizenship  is  in  heaven.  Thence,  as  the 
inspiration  of  a  hfe  of  heavenly  morality,  they  still  await  their 
perfected  salvation  with  the  coming  of  him  who  in  negation  of  the 
false  teaching  is  Saviour,  the  undivided  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and 
who  in  contradiction  of  any  dualistic  theory,  will  fashion  anew  the 
body  of  our  himiiliation  to  be  conformed  to  the  body  of  his  glory. 

We,  therefore,  submit  that  in  each  of  the  three  Letters  of  this 
later  group,  in  their  prayer,  doctrinal  statement  and  direct  descrip- 
tion of  opponents,  one  definite  group  of  false  teachers  is  in  view; 
that  the  same  class  is  combatted  in  all  three  Epistles;  and  that  the 
definite  denials  of  the  Christian  faith  and  hope,  the  rejection  of  the 
moral  ideals  of  the  Christian  walk  in  love,  and  the  divisive  opposi- 
tion to  the  Church  fellowship  found  in  this  group,  are  the  same  as 
those  found  in  the  earlier  groups  or  are  developments  of  them. 
We  conclude  that  this  result  points  to  the  activity  of  a  gnostic 
movement  in  Pauline  churches  beginning  shortly  after  50  A.  d. 
Surveys  of  the  recognized  gnostic  activity  in  the  later  Epistles  will 
serve  as  a  test  of  the  validity  of  this  conclusion. 


290    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 


4.    THE  PASTORALS 

Constructions  of  the  descriptions  of  the  errorists  in  the  Pastorals 
and  of  the  frequent  incidental  allusions  to  them,  both  affect  and 
are  affected  by  the  critical  discussions  as  to  the  genuineness  of 
these  Epistles.  In  Baur's  construction  the  mention  of  the  an- 
titheses of  gnosis,  contests  about  the  law  and  teachers  of  the  law, 
were  viewed  as  referring  to  the  Antitheses  of  Marcion  and  to 
his  opposition  to  the  Jewish  law;  and,  therefore,  as  an  additional 
proof  of  the  second  century  date  of  the  Pastorals.  Many  Uberal 
critics,  however,  have  subsequently  agreed  that  they  do  not 
refer  to  any  definite  gnostic  sect  but  to  a  blend  of  incipient  gnostic- 
ism and  Judaism  later  than  66  a.  d.,  and  that  the  Epistles  are 
to  be  assigned  to  date  between  90  and  115  a.  d. 

Representative  conservative  critics,  as  B.  Weiss  and  Zahn,  on 
the  other  hand  maintain  their  genuineness-  on  the  ground  that 
the  features  similar  to  later  gnosticism  are  not  descriptions  of 
errors  current  in  the  writer's  day,  but  are  predictions  of  heresies 
of  the  future.  Weiss  also  holds  that  in  the  Pastorals  errors  are 
combatted  of  which  we  can  find  no  trace  elsewhere  in  the  PauUne 
Epistles,  although  he  grants,  Irdrod.,  28.2,  that  they  at  least 
proceed  parallel  to  those  in  Colossians.  He  also  asserts  that  these 
errors  are  not  attacks  on  any  fundamentals  of  Christian  faith  and 
life,  but  are  simply  a  teaching  concerning  extraneous  things, 
foolish  investigations  of  matters  about  which  nothing  can  be 
known,  and  profane  only  in  the  sense  that  they  are  void  of  all 
true  religious  content.  Even  the  denial  of  resurrection  is  not 
characteristic,  but  only  an  example  of  the  godless  assertions  to 
which  some  individuals  are  driven  in  disputations.  Asceticism 
and  libertinism  are  likewise  viewed  by  him  not  as  practices  of 
contemporary  errorists  but  as  predictions  of  coming  errors.  In 
Zahn's  construction  the  Pastorals  combat  a  distinct  new  false 
teaching  in  a  rabbinical  method,  corresponding  to  nothing  in  the 
second  century  or  in  the  other  Epistles  of  Paul.  There  would, 
therefore,  be  no  occasion  to  invent  such  a  movement  in  the  post- 
apostolic  age  or  to  connect  Paul's  name  with  its  refutation. 

There  is  no  reason,  however,  for  such  denial  of  gnostic  elements 
in  the  interest  of  defense  of  the  genuineness  of  these  Epistles. 
Moffatt,  Introd.j  153  f.,  points  out  that  'the  germs  of  what  was 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  291 

afterwards  gnosticism  can  be  detected  in  various  quarters  during 
the  eariier  half  of  the  first  century.  At  any  time  after  40  a.  d. 
early  Christianity  was  on  the  edge  of  such  speculative  tendencies'; 
and  their  existence  *  renders  it  quite  possible  that  such  a  reUgious 
temper  as  that  controverted  in  Colossians  could  have  prevailed 
during  the  first  century/  Lake,  Earlier  Epp.,  p.  46,  states  that 
'the  argument,  that  documents  such  as  some  of  the  Pauline  Epis- 
tles which  imply  a  point  of  view  similar  to  that  of  the  gnostics 
must  be  late,  is  unsound:  gnostic  ideas  are  earlier  not  later  than 
Christianity,  and  to  prove  that  any  given  document  is  engaged  in 
controverting  a  gnostic  point  of  view  .  .  .  has  no  necessary 
bearing  on  the  question  of  date.*  While  agreeing  with  Weiss  as 
to  the  genuineness  of  the  Pastorals,  but  confining  ourselves  here 
to  the  study  of  the  data  concerning  the  polemic  against  the  er- 
rorists,  we  proceed  to  consider  the  definite  indications  of  their 
gnostic  features,  which  he  denies.  The  previous  construction  of 
these  features  in  the  earlier  Epistles  will  enable  us  to  decide  whether 
we  have  not  in  the  Pastorals  a  direct  development  of  the  general 
movement  we  have  found  emerging  in  Thessalonica  and  ex- 
tending its  activity  in  the  Pauline  Churches  of  Achaia  and  Pro- 
consular Asia. 

As  in  the  earlier  groups  of  the  Epistles  the  errorists  are  *  es- 
pecially those  of  the  circumcision,'  Tit.  1,  10.  This  points  to 
them  rather  than  to  the  Gentiles  as  initiators  of  the  movement, 
since  Gentiles  can  be  more  easily  conceived  as  adopting  a  Jewish 
system,  than  Jews  as  followers  of  a  heathen  movement.  The 
definitely  Jewish  features  alluded  to  are  Jewish  myths  and  fight- 
ings concerning  the  law,  and  also  some  perverted  teaching  of  the 
law  by  the  errorists  who  neither  know  what  they  say  nor  whereof 
they  confidently  affirm,  I  Tim.  1,  7  f.  Since  this  description  is 
introduced  by  the  statement  that  they  have  swerved  from  *  faith 
unfeigned,'  they  are  not  unbelieving  Jews;  and  that  they  are  not 
Judaizers  is  equally  clear  from  the  description  that  they  have 
swerved  from  love  and  good  conscience,  and  from  the  reference  to 
their  ignorance  of  the  law,  which  would  not  be  true  either  of 
Pharisaic  teachers  of  the  law  or  of  its  Judaistic  Christian  observers 
and  advocates.  The  reference  can,  therefore,  be  to  antinomian 
Jewish  Christians  alone.  And  this  is  indicated  also  in  vss.  8-11 
by  the  repetition  of  the  earlier  exposition  directed  against  an- 


292    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

tinomians.  As  in  Rom.  7  the  law  is  Ka\6s  if  used  vonifius,  as 
knowing  that  it  is  not  made  against  a  righteous  man,  but  against 
all  forms  of  lawlessness,  insubordination,  impiety  and  immoraUty 
contrary  to  the  sound  doctrine  and  in  accordance  with  the  Gospel 
conmiitted  to  Paul's  trust.^*  This  interest  at  the  opening  of 
I  Tim.  in  combatting  antinomianism  is  prominent  in  the  entire 
group  of  the  Pastorals.  It  is  the  direct  occasion  of  the  constant 
emphasis  on  good  works,  which  is  not  a  reduction  of  Christian 
moraUty  to  an  ethical  code,  but  is  a  continued  affirmation  of  the 
Christian  duty  of  a  moral  walk  in  love  in  opposition  to  a  false 
emancipation  from  the  moral  law,  which  we  have    traced  from 

I  Thess.  4,  onwards. 

The  antinomianism  is,  moreover,  as  in  the  previous  Epistles, 
based  on  the  principles  of  the  false  teaching.  This  as  didaskalia 
is  not  Gospel  preaching,  from  which  it  is  clearly  distinguished,  but 
is  instruction.  By  the  writer  and  his  followers  the  instruction 
concerning  Christian  faith  and  life,  evae^eia,  is  based  on  the 
faithful  word  which  is  according  to  the  didache.  Tit.  1,  9.  The 
didaskalia  of  the  opponents  on  the  contrary  is  denounced  at  the 
opening  and  conclusion  of  I  Tim.,  as  well  as  in  4,  1  ff.;  6,  3  ff.;  in 

II  Tim.  2,  14-3,  9;  Tit.  1,  10-16;  3,  9-11,  besides  the  incidental 
allusions  and  contrasted  statements.  In  general  it  is  a  different 
teaching,  erepoSiSao-KaXta;  and  this  primarily  as  in  opposition  to 
the  Apostohc  tradition  of  the  Gospel,  as  in  Eph.  4,  20  and  Col.  2, 
5.  The  opening  assertions  in  I  Tim.  and  Tit.  of  the  writer's 
apostleship  by  the  command  of  God,  are  followed  by  asseverations 
of  his  being  divinely  intrusted  with  the  Gospel,  I  Tim.  1, 11  ff.,  as 
preacher,  apostle  and  teacher  2,  7;  II  Tim.  1,  11,  cp.  Tit.  1,  1-3; 
the  contexts  point  to  these  claims  as  a  defense  of  his  office,  au- 
thority and  teaching.  In  the  midst  of  his  claim  to  be  an  Apostle, 
I  Tim.  2,  7,  he  feels  compelled  to  assert,  'truth  I  am  speaking, 
I  am  uttering  no  lie,'  which  reveals  denial  of  his  apostleship,  and 
by  the  same  class  of  opponents  as  in  I  Thess.  2;  I  Cor.  8,  1 ;  II  Cor. 
11,  5;  12,  11  ff.;  cp.  Eph.  3,  3  ff.;  Col.  1,  25  ff.  The  difference  of 
their  teaching  is  further  presented  in  its  contrast  to  the  words  of 
faith  and  of  the  good  didaskalia,  I  Tim.  4,  6,  and  more  definitely 
to  the  sound  words,  those  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the 

"  See  the  discussion  of  the  passage  in  LUtgert,  Irrlehrer  der  Pastoralrbriefe, 
p.  10  ff. 


I 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  293 

didaskalia  which  is  according  to  evai^eia,  6,  3.  While  Timothy 
following  these  is  nourished,  the  errorists  by  refusing  adhesion  to 
them  are  diseased  concerning  questions  of  controversy  and 
contentions  of  words.  Hence,  their  insubordination  to  the  Church 
system  and  teaching,  their  besotted  pride,  deception  and  profane 
babblings.  They  are  reprobate  both  concerning  the  faith,  II 
Tim.  3,  8,  and  also  unto  every  good  work.  Tit.  1,  16. 

The  false  teaching,  next,  is  the  outcome  of  a  false  claim  of 
gnosis,  of  whose  possession,  as  we  know,  the  earlier  opponents  also 
boasted.  In  the  group  of  Prison  Letters  Paul  had  emphasized 
true  Christian  gnosis  in  antithesis  to  the  claims  of  the  errorists. 
Here  too  the  false  gnosis  is  in  fundamental  antithesis  to  epignosis 
of  the  truth.  This  phrase,  while  found  in  several  passages  in 
immediate  connection  with  faith,  is  not  simply  a  general  syn- 
onym for  beheving;  but  it  expresses  the  initial  direct  divine  cer- 
tainty and  bebaiosis  of  the  revelation  and  redemption  accepted 
by  faith.  The  development  of  this  initial  confirmation  of  faith 
in  epignosis  of  the  truth,  is  by  means  of  a  spiritual  gift  of  in- 
creasing gnosis  of  the  divine  life,  love  and  will;  and  it  will  be 
manifested  in  a  developing  life  of  good  works  of  love.  The  essen- 
tial connection  of  saving  faith  and  epignosis  is  traced  back  in 
I  Tim.  2,  4  to  God,  who  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved  and  to 
come  to  the  epignosis  of  the  truth.  In  the  formal  introductory 
declaration  of  his  office  and  Gospel  against  the  aspersions  of  his 
opponents,  Paul  is  an  Apostle  in  accordance  with  the  faith  of  God's 
elect  and  with  the  epignosis  of  the  truth  which  is  according  to 
godliness.  Christians  are  also  described,  I  Tim.  I,  4,  3,  as  the 
faithful  and  as  those  who  know  the  truth;  while  the  women  under 
the  influence  of  the  teachers  of  false  gnosis,  II  Tim.  3,  7,  are  ever 
learning  and  never  able  to  come  to  the  epignosis  of  the  truth;  and 
their  teachers  too  who,  vs.  8,  oppose  the  truth  are  also  reprobate 
concerning  the  faith. 

The  repudiation  in  I  Tim.  6,  20  of  their  gnosis  as  spurious  is 
repeated  in  Tit.  1,  15  f.  in  the  charge  that  while  they  profess  to 
'know  God'  they  deny  him  by  their  works.  It  is  false  gnosis  by 
reason  of  its  source.  Earlier  in  Cor.  and  Col.  the  errorists  claimed 
higher  illumination  and  power  by  means  of  visions  and  revelations 
in  their  communications  with  celestial  powers.  In  the  Pastorals, 
it  has  been  suggested  by  Liitgert,  p.  59  f.,that  the  emphases  in 


294    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  doxologies,  I  Tim.  1,  17;  6,  15,  on  God's  inapproachable 
majesty  and  invisibility  are  occasioned  by  false  claims  to  direct 
mystic  visions  and  knowledge  of  God  exalting  the  beholdel^  above 
the  revelation  in  the  Old  Testament  or  even  in  Christ.  Such 
claims  of  a  divine  lTn4>aveia  would  be  refuted  also  in  the  special 
use  of  this  term  in  the  Pastorals  to  declare  that  the  true  Epiphany 
of  God  and  Christ  is  in  Christ's  earthly  appearance  and  Parousia. 
However  this  may  be,  the  alleged  prophecies  and  teachings  are 
denounced  in  I  Tim.  4,  1  ff .  as  utterances  in  the  hypocrisy  of  men 
who  speak  lies  and  whose  conscience  is  branded.  The  real  super- 
natural source  of  the  false  teaching  is  seen  in  its  fulfillment  of  the 
current  New  Testament  prophecy  of  an  apostasy  in  later  times, 
due  to  adhesion  to  deceiving  spirits  and  teachings  of  demons; 
cp.  II  Thess.  2,  10  f.;  II  Cor.  11,  3.13  ff.  The  false  gnosis,  there- 
fore, instead  of  being  spiritual  illumination,  proceeds  from  an 
evil  conscience,  is  the  avoia  of  men  corrupt  in  mind  and  '  knowing 
nothing,'  cp.  Eph.  4,  14.  Its  content  is  not  epignosis  of  the  truth 
but  Jewish  myths,  endless  genealogies,  profane  babblings  and 
antitheses  of  a  gnosis  falsely  named  and  the  occasion  of  con- 
tentions in  regard  to  the  Old  Testament  law. 

What  concretely  were  these  bases  of  the  system  is  wholly  con- 
jectural and  is  still  problematical.  Ultimate  approach  to  some 
tenable  conjecture  commending  itself  by  most  reasonably  ac- 
counting for  both  the  data  of  the  Pastorals  and  the  rest  of  the 
New  Testament  references  to  gnostic  errorists,  may  be  furthered, 
as  stated,  by  the  results  of  present  investigations  of  the  sources  of 
second-century  gnosticism,  and  of  the  character  of  pre-Christian 
Jewish  gnosticism,  especially  in  connection  with  Philo's  references 
to  such  speculations  in  Alexandrian  religious  philosophy,  as  well 
as  his  own  relations  to  it.  Any  such  theory  should  account  in 
one  view  for  the  several  terms  listed  above  in  the  descriptions  of 
the  false  teaching.  Hence,  the  current  disconnected  expositions 
are  at  once  questionable:  myths  merely  as  Jewish  Haggadoth, 
which  indeed  as  such  would  probably  not  be  denounced  as  pro- 
fane; antitheses  as  rival  rabbinical  decisions  of  points  in  the 
Mosaic  law,  with  which  Pauline  churches  would  have  no  con- 
cern; genealogies  as  haggadic  developments  of  Old  Testament 
lists  or  histories,  whose  perverting  influence  on  the  fundamental 
words  of  faith  is  not  apparent.     Nor  would  any  of  these  con- 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  295 

jectures  sufficiently  explain  the  tendency  of  interest  in  such  mat- 
ters, to  antinomianism  and  immorality.^^  But  apart  from  any  at- 
tempts to  conjecture  the  bases  of  this  false  gnosis,  we  can  recognize 
its  essential  oppositions  to  Christian  faith  and  life;  and  also  the 
close  similarity  of  these  oppositions  to  those  in  the  three  earlier 
groups  of  Epistles.  Most  distinct  is  the  opposition  to  Christian 
morals. 

The  recurring  positive  exhortations  to  a  quiet  life  in  all  eucrc- 
jSeta  and  gravity,  and  to  maintain  good  works,  are  in  express  an- 
tithesis to  the  different  teaching;  and  they  are  accompanied  with 
direct  denunciations  of  the  do-cjSeta  of  the  errorists:  men  with 
defiled  conscience,  abominable,  and  unto  every  good  work  repro- 
bate. Again  we  find  as  in  Colossians  the  alliance  of  antinomian 
rejection  of  Christian  morality  with  false  asceticism.  Men  with 
branded  conscience,  I  Tim.  4,  2,  and  reprobate  as  to  good  works. 
Tit.  1,  16,  prohibit  marriage  and  certain  foods  as  impure.  The 
problem  of  such  a  combination  is  frequently  resolved  by  distin- 
guishing groups  of  libertines  and  of  ascetics,  as  in  the  later  multi- 
form gnostic  systems.  Hence  the  tendencies  to  find  both  in  Col- 
ossians and  Pastorals  two  sets  of  errorists,  or  with  Liitgert  to 
regard  the  earlier  opponents  in  Corinth  as  libertines  and  those  in 
the  Pastorals  as  ascetics.  Yet  the  data  in  all  groups  of  the  Epistles 
point  rather  to  the  general  features  of  but  one  movement.  How 
close  its  similarities  in  Col.  2  and  3  and  I  Tim.  4  are,  appears  in 
the  parallel  structure  of  the  descriptions  of  the  errorists:  asceticism 
based  on  spurious  revelations;  rejecting  as  evil  in  I  Tim.  4  what 
God  had  created  and  pronounced  good,  while  enforcing  on  the 
contrary  in  Col.  2,  21  f.,  commandments  of  men  in  self-imposed 
observance.    In  each  passage  also  it  is  described  as  hard  treatment 

'^  Uniting  the  terms  of  the  description  and  observing  the  constant  allusions 
in  sections  of  polemic  with  gnostic  opponents,  to  the  early  chapters  of  Genesis, 
there  may  be  a  possibiUty  that  already  as  at  the  end  of  the  century,  cp.  Mof- 
fatt,  Introd.,  p.  408,  the  system  rested  on  myths  concerning  the  topics  in 
those  chapters:  creation  explained  on  dualistic  principles;  gnosis  in  connection 
with  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil;  issuing  from  this  the  gnostics' 
attempt  to  account  for  evil  by  their  genealogies  of  aeons,  emanations  and 
angehc  powers,  presented  in  the  pairs  or  antitheses  of  gnostic  systems.  The 
antinomianism  reflected  in  contentions  about  the  law  might  also  be  conceived 
as  connected  with  myths  concerning  gnosis  and  subjection  to  commandment 
in  Gen.  3. 


296    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

of  the  body  or  as  the  bodily  yviivaala.  This  in  CoL  is  'not  in  any 
honor/  and  in  I  Tim.  is  useful  irpos  oXiyov.  Finally  in  Col.  it  is 
in  the  interest  of  full  satisfaction  of  the  flesh,  as  in  I  Tim.  4,  2, 
it  is  a  teaching  of  men  with  seared  conscience  and  who  as  else- 
where in  the  Pastorals  are  rejecters  of  Christian  morality. 

The  connection  of  these  two  features  of  what  appears  to  be  one 
general  movement,  is  not  indicated  in  the  Pastorals  as  simply  that 
of  libertine  reaction  from  ascetic  overstrain.  It  is  an  antinomian- 
ism  which  replaces  good  works  from  faith  unfeigned  by  command- 
ments of  men  based  on  Jewish  myths,  I  Tim.  4,  7;  Tit.  1,  13.  The 
commandments  mentioned  are  prohibition  of  marriage  and  of 
certain  foods,  which,  however,  are  accompanied  by  indiiference  to 
moral  purity  and  with  disregard  of  other  standards  of  morality. 
These  commandments  are  opposed  in  the  repeated  stress  upon 
maintenance  of  the  marriage  institution,  upon  childbearing  and 
upon  fulfillment  of  the  duties  of  affection  and  subordination  in  the 
home,  I  Tim.  2,  14;  5, 14;  Tit.  2,  4.  They  are  likewise  opposed  in 
the  requirement  of  marriage  and  normal  discipline  of  home  life  for 
presbyter-bishops  and  deacons;  and  the  five  references  to  use  of 
wine  with  moral  restrictions  are  in  probable  contrast  to  abstinence 
from  it  and  from  foods,  on  some  theory  of  evil  inherent  in  creation. 

We  have  noticed  in  I  Cor.  6.7,  a  similar  occasion  both  to  insist 
that  there  is  no  sin  in  marriage  and  also  to  warn  against  fornication; 
in  Col.  both  to  repudiate  commands  to  touch  not,  taste  not, 
handle  not,  and  to  add  exhortations  against  impurity  and  to 
maintain  the  ideals  of  family  life;  in  Ephesians  too  to  emphasize 
the  sacredness  of  the  marriage  relation  on  the  basis  of  its  divine 
institution  in  Genesis.  Here  in  the  Pastorals  the  prohibition  of 
marriage  and  foods  is  definitely  connected  with  Jewish  myths. 
Apart  from  the  illustrations  in  later  gnostic  systems  which  are 
listed  in  the  commentaries,  the  possibility  that  these  myths  are 
speculations  based  on  Genesis  1-3  is  suggested  by  the  parallelism 
of  the  topics  in  these  chapters  and  in  the  polemic  sections  of  the 
Pastorals:  creation  pronounced  good  in  contrast  to  a  view  of  evil 
inherent  in  it;  the  appointment  of  food;  the  institution  of  marriage; 
the  tree  of  gnosis  in  connection  with  good  and  evil,  obedience  and 
freedom,  and  with  Jewish  speculations  concerning  its  reference  to 
sex  relations;  subjection  of  the  woman  to  her  husband  and  her 
childbearing. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  297 

Essentially  related  to  this  rejection  of  the  Christian  morality 
was  a  second  point  of  similarity  to  the  errorists  already  considered: 
the  denial  of  Christian  eschatology.  In  their  teaching,  the  resur- 
rection has  already  taken  place,  II  Tim.  2,  18;  and  this,  as  we  have 
understood,  in  their  baptism  and  present  possession  of  the  Spirit. 
That  gift  is  again  declared  to  be  but  an  earnest  of  the  completed 
Messianic  blessing,  since  in  Tit.  3,  6  ff.  by  this  regeneration  and 
renewal  of  the  Spirit,  we  as  justified  become  heirs  according  to 
hope  of  eternal  life.  The  prominence  of  the  denial  of  general 
resurrection  in  their  system  is  marked  not  only  by  this  definite 
reference  but  also  by  the  antithetical  emphasis  at  the  opening  of 
all  three  Epistles:  Paul  an  Apostle  of  Christ  Jesus  our  hope; 
Apostle  according  to  the  promise  of  the  life  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus,  cp.  I  Tim,  4,  8  ff.;  Apostle  on  the  ground  of  the  hope  of 
eternal  life.  Hence  too  the  stress  on  the  final  Epiphany,  I  Tim. 
6, 14,  and  on  the  waiting  for  the  blessed  hope  and  Epiphany  of  the 
great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  Tit.  2,  13,  and  the  refer- 
ences to  the  Day.  Not  till  that  Day,  II  Tim.  1,  12;  18;  4,  8;  2, 
10-14,  shall  we  reign  with  him  or  be  denied  by  him.  And  the 
Apostle's  closing  confession  is  in  the  Christian  hope  that  God  will 
save  him  unto  his  Kingdom,  the  heavenly;  and  as  righteous  Judge 
will  then  give  the  crown  of  righteousness  not  to  him  only,  but  also 
to  all  them  that  have  loved  his  appearing. 

These  two  denials  of  the  Christian  moral  life  in  the  walk  of  love 
and  of  the  Christian  hope  are  further,  as  in  the  earlier  polemic, 
directly  related  to  denials  of  the  Christian  faith.  Some  who  in 
I  Tim.  1,  19,  have  thrust  from  them  a  good  conscience  have  made 
shipwreck  concerning  the  faith.  Denial  of  the  resurrection  over- 
throws the  faith  of  some,  II  Tim.  2,  18.  Professors  of  gnosis  have 
swerved  concerning  the  faith;  do  not  adhere  to  sound  words,  those 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  are  reprobate  concerning  the  faith. 
They  are  still  within  the  Church  and  profess  its  faith,  but  theirs  is, 
I  Tim.  1,  5,  a  feigned  faith.  Their  definite  perversions  are  gener- 
ally recognized  as  the  antitheses  to  the  significant  dogmatic  empha- 
ses, especially  in  the  polemical  sections.  And  they  are  also  closely 
parallel  to  the  errors  concerning  fundamental  matters  of  faith, 
gradually  appearing  in  the  eariier  Letters  with  the  Apostle's  in- 
creasing recognition  and  exposure  of  the  movement. 

Less  definite  in  these  Letters  to  his  coadjutors  and  their  circles 


298    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

than  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossian  Church,  is  the  allusion  to 
false  teaching  as  to  the  relation  of  God  to  the  creation.  In  his 
attack  on  false  asceticism,  we  have  however  noticed  his  assertions, 
I  Tim.  4,  3,  f.,  of  God's  direct  creation  and  that  irap  Kriana  of  God 
is  good,  thus  counteracting  any  doctrine  of  creation  by  an  inferior 
demiurge  and  of  the  essential  evil  of  things  created.  The  title  of 
God  as  Saviour,  and  of  all  men,  his  will  that  all  should  be  saved  and 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  his  grace  bringing  salvation  to 
all  men,  are  declarations  of  universalism  which  are  recognized  to 
be,  as  in  the  Prison  Letters,  in  contrast  to  the  exclusiveness  and 
separatist  spirit  of  the  gnostic  teachers. 

More  distinctly,  however,  do  the  christological  errors  of  the 
earlier  Epistles  reappear.  In  I  Tim.  2,  5,  universal  salvation  is 
provided  by  the  One  God  and  by  the  One  Mediator  between  God 
and  men.  Since  there  is  but  one  Mediator,  he  is  destined  for  all; 
and  more,  as  one,  he  is  as  well  the  sole  Mediator  displacing  as  in 
Colossians  all  other  alleged  mediators  of  aeons  or  an  angelic  hier- 
archy. Further,  in  opposition  to  docetic  theories,  the  one  Medi- 
ator is  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  in  his  manhood  really  united  to  the 
heavenly  Christ  and  truly  giving  himself  to  death,  a  ransom  for  all. 
Introductory  to  the  section  concerning  the  errorists,  Timothy  is 
called  upon,  II  Tim.  2,  8,  to  remember  the  cardinal  truths  of  Jesus 
as  Messiah  of  the  seed  of  David  as  regards  the  flesh,  and  of  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  The  reference  here  to  denials  of  the 
incarnation,  passion  and  resurrection  of  the  dead  heavenly  Christ, 
cp.  vs.  12,  is  supported  by  the  parallel  use  of  the  statements  of 
vs.  8  by  Ignatius,  Trail.  9.10.  In  contradiction  to  docetic  gnostic 
denial  of  the  union  of  the  heavenly  Christ  with  the  man  Jesus, 
cp.  I  Cor.  12,  3,  the  good  confession  I  Tim.  6, 12  f.,  of  Timothy  in 
the  sight  of  many  witnesses  and  of  Christ  Jesus  before  Pontius 
Pilate  when  facing  the  Cross,  is  that  he,  the  man  Jesus,  is  the 
Christ.  Against  the  related  gnostic  denials  of  the  redemptive 
death  of  Christ,  we  again  meet,  as  in  I  Cor.  1,  18  f.  and  in  the  suc- 
ceeding Epistles,  with  the  opposing  reaffirmations  that  the  One 
Mediator  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all;  that  God  saved  us  by  the 
Epiphany  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  who  abolished  death  and 
brought  life  and  inmiortality  to  light;  that  he  gave  himself  for  us 
to  redeem  us. 
All  the  dogmatic  passages  reveal  the  same  interest  in  safeguard- 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  299 

ing  fundamentals  of  Christian  faith  against  errorists  whose  *  other 
teaching'  involves  a  swerving  from,  a  denial  of,  a  blasphemy 
against,  a  shipwreck  concerning,  that  faith.  The  five  Faithful 
Sayings  are  to  be  considered  in  this  connection,  although  they  are 
variously  assigned  to  statements  preceding  or  following  the  phrase. 
Liitgert  may  be  right  in  considering,  p.  52,  the  formula  Tnards 
6  X670S  as  an  assurance  indicating  that  the  statement  of  faith  is 
oppugned.  Kendall's  view  that  6  X670S  refers  to  the  Gospel  as  a 
whole,  is  advocated  by  Evill,  Exp.  Times,  XXIX,  442  ff.,  who 
holds,  however,  that  I  Tim.  1,  15  is  the  only  Faithful  Saying,  the 
others  bemg  reminders  of  it.  But  he  also  offers  the  attractive  sug- 
gestion that  the  reference  of  the  saying  to  the  preceding  or  follow- 
ing context  is  determined  by  the  use  of  save,  salvation  or  Saviour. 
This  would  fix  the  reference  of  the  first  and  third  Sayings  to  the 
words  following,  and  of  the  second,  fourth  and  fifth  to  what 
precedes.  In  such  case,  the  first,  I  Tim.  1, 15,  affirms  the  faith  in 
the  incarnation  and  redemption  of  Christ  Jesus.  The  second, 
2,  15,  against  the  ascetics'  opposition  to  marriage  and  their  anti- 
nomianism,  is  an  assurance  of  salvation  in  the  state  of  marriage, 
childbearing  and  in  abiding  in  the  Christian  faith  and  moral  life  of 
love,  purity  and  sobriety.  In  the  third,  4,  10,  the  Christian  hope 
of  life  still  awaiting  us  who  are  not  already  perfected  but  are  still 
laboring  and  striving,  rests  on  the  promise  of  the  living  God  and 
Saviour  of  all.  The  fourth,  II  Tim.  2,  10,  cp.  Phpns.  3,  10  ff., 
against  errorists  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  who  refuse  to  be 
conformed  to  his  suffering  and  death,  affirms  that  the  salvation 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  with  eternal  glory,  awaits  those  who 
suffer  and  have  died  with  him  that  they  may  reign  with  him.  The 
fifth.  Tit.  3,  4-7  or  6.7,  recalls  that  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  has 
poured  out  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  us  richly  that  we  may  become 
heirs  according  to  hope  of  eternal  life. 

It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  all  these  Faithful  Sayings  are  linked 
with  the  polemical  sections.  The  first  three  in  I  Tim.  each  con- 
clude a  polemic  passage.  The  fourth,  II  Tim.  2,  10,  introduces  the 
first  mention  of  the  errorists  in  that  Epistle.  The  fifth,  in  Titus, 
introduces  the  final  reference  to  them.  The  other  dogmatic 
summaries  are  likewise  directly   related  to  the  false  teachers. 

I  Tim.  3,  16  f.,  introduces  the  denunciation  of  them  in  4,  1  ff. 

II  Tim.  1,  8  ff.,  is  introduced  and  concluded  with  a  disavowal  of 


300    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

'  being  ashamed '  of  the  Gospel  he  preaches  and  for  which  he  suffers, 
intimating  therefore  that  it  is  impugned.  And  Tit.  2,  11-14,  sums 
up  positively  the  features  of  his  Gospel  opposed  by  the  false 
teachers:  the  Epiphany,  the  revelation  of  God  in  the  appearance 
and  redemptive  death  of  Christ  Jesus  on  earth  and  in  his  re- 
appearance in  divine  glory;  the  sober,  righteous  and  godly  life, 
in  contrast  to  antinomian  immorality  and  asceticism;  the  ex- 
pectation of  the  blessed  hope,  the  Parousia,  consummated  salva- 
tion and  resurrection;  and  the  Xa6s  Treptoucrios,  the  people  and 
Church  purified  for  his  own  possession,  zealous  of  good  works. 
These  are  all  antignostic  teachings.  That  they  were  directly  de- 
signed to  oppose  the  errorists,  is  evident  from  the  command  in 
vs.  15  to  use  them  not  only  in  instruction  and  exhortation  but  in 
confutation,  with  all  authority,  of  those  ready  to  despise  Titus. 
And  these  we  may  find  in  the  preceding  section,  1,  9-16:  the 
opposers  whom  the  presbyters  are  to  confute;  the  intruding  false 
teachers  whose  mouth  must  be  stopped  by  Titus,  confuting  them 
sharply,  airoTbfxoss. 

The  reference  to  'the  people  for  his  own  possession,'  recalls  the 
inevitable  dangers  of  this  movement  for  Church  fellowship  and 
life.  As  in  the  earliest  allusion  to  their  activity  in  Thessalonica, 
they  are  with  their  individual  gift  of  gnosis,  'insubordinate.'  In 
their  boast  of  being  pneimiatics,  they  ignore  as  heretofore  the 
apostleship  of  Paul  and  the  authority  of  any  ministry,  either  of 
apostles,  evangelists  or  local  presbyter-bishops.  Besotted  with 
pride,  they  assert  also  their  independence  of  the  Apostolic  tradition 
of  the  Gospel,  the  primitive  instruction  of  converts  and  the  doc- 
trinal teachings  based  upon  them  in  the  Church  services.  The 
'gainsayers,'  avriXiyovTeSy  Tit.  1,  9,  are  such  in  reference  to  the 
faithful  word  according  to  the  didache  and  to  the  sound  didaskalia; 
just  as  in  I  Tim.  6,  3  those  who  teach  a  different  doctrine,  do  not 
adhere  to  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  to  the  didaskalia  ac- 
cording to  iixri^eia.  Claiming  divine  inspiration  for  themselves, 
they,  although  of  Jewish  provenance,  go  beyond  what  is  written  in 
the  Old  Testament,  cp.  I  Cor.  4,  6;  and  in  contrast  to  the  function 
and  use  of  the  Old  Testament  in  relation  to  Christian  faith  and 
life,  as  enjoined  on  Timothy,  II  Tim.  3, 14-17,  they  evince  their  dis- 
regard for  its  authority  by  their  myths  and  antinomian  contentions 
concerning  the  law. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  301 

Such  an  attitude  towards  the  Gospel,  teaching,  discipline  and 
ministry,  involves  their  insubordination  to  the  institution  of  the 
Church  as  the  household  of  God,  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth. 
Their  activity  within  it  could  therefore  tend  only  to  undermine  its 
peace,  unity,  fellowship  and  life.  The  leaders  are  consequently 
described  as  aipertKot,  men  causing  divisions.  These  are  raised, 
as  in  Corinth,  in  the  Church  services,  in  which  it  is  necessary  to 
enjoin,  I  Tim.  2,  8,  that  the  men  pray  lifting  up  holy  hands  without 
wrath  and  disputing;  and  that  in  the  teaching  at  the  services,  those 
in  charge  should  repress  foohsh  contentions  which  engender  strife, 
disputes  about  words  subverting  the  hearers,  myths,  genealogies 
and  fightings  about  the  law  which  cause  unprofitable  strifes  rather 
than  the  dispensation  or  stewardship  of  God  in  faith. 

Hence  too  the  specific  directions  to  the  two  Evangelists  con- 
cerning the  choice  of  a  ministry  fitted  for  teaching  and  discipline  in 
this  situation.    To  confute  errorists,  as  well  as  to  minister  in  the 
word  and  didaskalia,  they  must  themselves  be  blameless  in  faith 
and  morals:  holding  the  faithful  word  according  to  the  didache,  as 
the  deacons  likewise  must  hold  the  mystery  of  the  faith  in  a  pure 
conscience.    In  contrast  to  the  pride  and  contentious  spirit  of  the 
false  teachers,  they  must  be  not  self-willed.  Tit.  1,  7;  I  Tim.  3,  3; 
II  Tim.  2,  24,  men  disposed  to  anger  and  strife,  but  gentle  and 
forbearing.      Repelling     antinomian    indifference    to    Christian 
morals,  they  must  themselves  be  examples  of  the  good  works  of  the 
sober,  righteous  and  godly  life.    The  three  prohibitions  of  the  love 
of  money  and  base  greed  of  gain,  recall  this  characteristic  of  the 
false  teachers  both  in  the  Pastorals,  Tit.  1,  11,  and  in  the  earlier 
Epistles.     The  duty  of  the  presbyter-bishops  to  receive  and  to 
extend  hospitahty  to  visiting  brethren,  may  possibly  in  these 
contexts  as  in  III  John  5  f .  and  10,  allude  to  the  exclusiveness  and 
separatist  spirit  of  the  errorists;  and  Lutgert,  p.  71,  suggests  that  the 
emphasis  on  sobriety  of  mind,  gravity  and  <Toxf>po(Tvvr]  is  directed 
against  the  extravagances  and  agitations  of  the  excited  visionaries. 
In  the  remaining  qualifications  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  ministry 
will  not  be  chosen  from  the  false  ascetics  or  their  sympathizers. 
Bishops,  presbyters  and  deacons  are  to  be  married  and  to  maintain 
their  family  life.    Instead  of  abstinence  from  wine  based  on  some 
dualistic  theory  of  creation  as  evil,  there  are  injunctions  on  moral 
grounds  against  being  *  given  to  much  wine,*  and  being  irdpoLvoSy 


302    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

which  probably  from  its  position  in  both  lists  means  'violent  over 
wine, '  cp.  also  I  Tim.  5,  23;  Tit.  2,  3. 

The  specification  regarding  their  marriage  is  related  to  a  divi- 
sive influence  outside  the  Church  services:  the  intrusion  of  false 
teachers  into  home  life.  They  overthrow  whole  houses,  teaching 
what  they  ought  not.  Tit.  1,  11.  The  method  of  this  overthrow 
appears  to  be  connected  with  four  pecuhar  references  to  married 
women.  Immediately  following  the  description  of  the  errorists  in 
Titus,  are  given  injunctions  concerning  the  household.  While 
the  elder  men  are  to  receive  only  most  general  exhortation  to 
soberness  of  mind  and  soundness  in  faith,  love  and  patience  of 
hope,  and  the  younger  men  to  be  soberminded,  there  are  specific 
instructions  for  older  women,  and  still  more  for  the  younger 
women.  There  is  occasion  to  urge  them  to  love  their  husbands 
and  children,  to  be  soberminded,  chaste,  workers  at*  home,  kind, 
being  in  subjection  to  their  own  husbands.  The  motive  for  the 
stress  upon  such  ordinary  and  normal  conduct  is  'lest  the  word 
of  God  be  blasphemed.'  This  special  warning  to  them  could  be 
accounted  for  by  the  hypothesis  that  under  some  form  of  teaching 
claiming  to  be  Christian,  households  were  being  overthrown;  and 
that  the  reason  for  blaspheming  the  word  of  God  was  the  re- 
pudiation by  Christian  women  of  marriage,  childbearing,  sub- 
jection to  husbands,  home  duties.  There  is  besides  in  the  list  of 
duties  impressed,  the  ominous  reference  to  chastity. 

We  have  also  in  II  Tim.  3,  6  f.  a  similar  collocation  of  errorists 
and  of  their  activity  among  women.  Here  too  they  creep  into 
the  houses  and  bring  into  captivity  silly  women.  Paul  in  polemic 
against  the  gnosis  of  Corinthian  opponents  describes  himself  as 
bringing  into  captivity  every  thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ, 
II  Cor.  10,  5.  These  women  on  the  contrary  are  brought  into 
captivity  to  the  intruders'  system;  and  although  ever  learning  in 
it,  are  never  able  to  come  to  the  epignosis  of  the  truth.  These 
adherents  of  antinomian  teachers  are  besides  described  as  laden 
with  sins  and  led  by  divers  lusts.  The  widow  that  lives  riotously 
and  the  young  widows  reproached  in  I  Tim.  5,  13,  are  not  stated 
to  be  followers  of  the  errorists.  But  the  ensuing  injunction  thatj 
young  women  or  widows  marry,  bear  children,  rule  the  horn 
hold,  to  give  no  occasion  for  reviling,  with  the  addition  'for  some 
have  already  turned  aside  after  Satan,'  again  suggests  an  opposing 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  303 

teaching.  Uniting  these  three  references  to  women  in  the  house- 
hold with  that  to  women  in  the  Church  service,  I  Tim.  2,  9,  we 
can  recognize  not  only  with  Ltitgert  but  also  with  DibeUus  in 
his  conmientary,  p.  195,  the  influence  of  a  gnostic  teaching  of 
freedom  of  the  spirit,  emancipating  women  in  the  household  from 
childbearing,  from  the  institution  of  marriage,  as  well  as  from  the 
morality  of  law  and  social  custom.  The  allusions  to  Genesis  in  I 
Tim.  2,  as  already  suggested,  could  be  a  retort  to  a  gnostic  myth 
exploiting  the  reference  to  eating  of  the  tree  of  gnosis  in  connection 
with  sex  relations,  the  childbearing,  and  the  husband's  rule  over 
the  woman.  Gen.  3,  16.^^  This  gnostic  perversion  of  the  Pauline 
gospel  of  liberty  would  also  be  expected  to  affect  the  slaves  in  the 
'whole  households'  which  the  errorists  overthrow.  Liitgert,  there- 
fore, argues,  p.  43  ff.,  that  the  formulation  and  contents  of  the  in- 
structions for  slaves  in  I  Tim.  6,  1 ;  Tit.  2,  9,  point  to  an  emanci- 
pating tendency  fostered  by  the  false  teachers.  Their  spirit  of 
insubordination  and  independence  of  all  authority  and  social  order, 
would  also  account  for  the  reaffirmation  of  submission  and  loyalty 
to  the  State  in  I  Tim.  2,  2  and  Tit.  3,  1. 

Thus  even  in  these  Epistles  concerned  definitely  with  Church 
Order,  ttcos  del  Iv  oIkc^  Btov  avaaTpi<pea6aL,  we  find  the  occasion 
and  controlUng  interest  to  be  the  instruction  of  the  EvangeUsts, 
not  in  the  general  principles  of  Church  administration  in  its  various 
spheres,  but  specifically  in  the  needed  discipUne  of  the  churches 
of  Ephesus  and  Crete,  which  are  exposed  to  the  internal  danger 
of  gnostic  teaching.  I  Tim.  opens  with  the  charge  against  heterodi- 
daskalia,  as  it  ends  with  the  denunciation  of  the  pseudognosis 
upon  which  the  teaching  is  based.  Intervening  are  the  warnings 
of  its  denials  of  faith  and  hope,  of  its  perversions  of  morals  in 
individual  and  family  fife,  of  its  disruption  of  fellowship  within 
the  Church's  order  of  worship  and  ministry.  A  summary  of  the 
principles  by  which  the  false  teachings  are  to  be  repelled,  serves 
as  the  letter  preface  to  Titus,  introducing,  1,  5,  the  call  for  their 
appKcation  in  setting  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting;  and 

^  For  the  r6le  played  by  women  among  the  errorists  of  the  Pastorals  and 
in  later  gnostic  systems,  see  M.  Dibelius,  Hdbitch.,  Z.  N.  T.,  Excursus  to 
I  Tim.  2,  15.  Cp.  also  Harnack,  Miss,  and  Expans.,  II,  p.  75  ff.  concerning 
the  special  prominence  of  women  in  the  heretical  sects,  with  the  patristic 
references  and  the  summary  in  Jerome,  Ep.,  133,  4. 


304    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  Epistle  concludes  with  the  injunction  to  refuse  errorists  who 
reject  the  Church's  admonitions.  The  central  sections  of  even 
the  personal,  II  Ep.  to  Timothy,  are  concerned  with  the  discussion 
of  the  same  movement. 

Being  addressed  to  associates  fully  familiar  with  his  conflict 
with  the  gradually  emerging  error,  these  Letters  naturally  do  not 
so  much  present  as  the  earUer  Letters,  discussions  of  its  princi- 
ples and  teachings,  as  positive  concrete  directions  for  combatting 
them  by  Gospel  principles  and  by  personal  discipline  of  their 
propagandists.  Yet  even  from  this  new  viewpoint  we  submit  that 
at  every  essential  point  of  comparison,  the  false  system  is  found 
to  belong  to  the  same  movement  as  that  whose  activity  we  have 
recognized  in  the  churches  of  Asia,  Greece  and  Macedon  from 
five  to  fifteen  years  earlier.  Consideration  of  the  provenance, 
more  general  character  and  methods  of  the  movement  and  also 
of  the  Apostle's  methods  of  opposing  it  as  it  became  more  clearly 
recognized,  will  follow  our  examination  of  remaining  Epistles; 
since  in  them  too,  we  believe,  will  be  seen  the  activity  of  a  gnostic 
movement  with  the  same  controlling  characteristics,  and  combatted 
on  the  same  principles  of  defense  and  polemic. 

5.   HEBREWS,  CATHOLIC  EPISTLES  AND  REVELATION 
THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  been  frequently  described  as 
an  apology  for  Christianity.  In  this  case,  however,  it  is  to  be 
recognized,  cp.  Moffatt,  Hist.  N.  T.,  p.  344,  that  it  is  apologetic 
in  the  definite  sense  that  its  primary  interest  is  to  establish  be- 
lievers in  their  jSejSatwins:  their  full  assurance  of  faith  in  their 
confession  of  hope.  The  occasion  for  this  establishment  is  a 
strain  upon  their  Christian  hope,  due  both  to  external  persecu- 
tions, 10,  32  ff.,  12,  3  ff.,  and  internally  to  the  intrusion  of  teach- 
ings depriving  them  of  the  inspiration  of  the  patience  of  hope  to 
endure,  and  eventually  causing  them  to  drift  from  the  faith  upon 
which  this  hope  rests. 

It  has  been  usual  to  regard  the  Epistle  as  addressed  to  Jewish) 
Christians  whose  loyalty  to  Christianity  is  weakened,  especially] 
amid  persecutions,  by  the  difficulty  of  a  delayed  Parousia,  by  thej 
standing  Jewish  difficulty  of  a  suffering  Messiah,  and  more  coni 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  305 

cretely  by  the  loss  of  the  privilege  of  sharing  the  Jewish  Temple 
worship.  The  relapse  of  the  readers  would,  in  such  a  view,  ob- 
viously be  to  their  former  legaUstic  and  ceremonial  Judaism.  In 
favor  of  this  interpretation  of  the  situation  is  the  fact  that  the 
central  teaching  of  Christ's  heavenly  priesthood  directly  meets 
these  assumed  difficulties.  But  the  remaining  sections  of  the 
Epistle  may  point  to  a  different  situation.  And  in  fact  the 
general  trend  of  recent  criticism  of  various  schools  is  against  the 
view  that  the  danger  of  a  relapse  is  that  of  a  return  to  Judaism. 
It  is  shown  by  Von  Soden,  Handktr.,  p.  12,  that  several  of  the 
principal  exhortations  would  not  be  appropriate  or  effective  as 
dissuasives  against  such  a  return;  that  some  of  the  sins  involved 
in  a  relapse  are  equally  opposed  by  the  law;  that  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  inclination  to  legalism  as  among  the  impelUng  motives 
to  it;  and  especially  that  a  return  to  their  former  Judaism  would 
not  be  described  as  in  3,  12  as  falling  away  from  the  living  God. 
Besides,  a  relapse  to  Judaism  involves  a  rejection  of  Jesus'  mes- 
siahship.  Yet  the  Epistle  assumes  throughout  the  readers'  be- 
lief that  he  is  the  Messiah,  while  it  warns  against  misconceptions 
which  would  nullify  his  messianic  character  and  work.  There  is 
no  repetition  or  reenforcement  either  of  the  original  apologia 
proving  Jesus  to  be  the  Christ,  or  of  the  usual  form  of  the  argument 
from  the  Old  Testament  pointing  to  a  suffering  Christ. 

These  considerations  have  led  next  to  the  view  that  the  relapse 
must  be  to  heathenism;  and,  therefore,  that  the  readers  are  Gentile 
converts  wavering  under  the  strain  of  persecution  and  of  the 
delay  of  the  Parousia.  Against  this  construction,  however,  is  the 
whole  impression  made  by  the  Epistle  that  the  readers  are  of 
Jewish  nationality,  cp.  Zahn,  II,  323  ff.  All  the  topics  and  argu- 
ments are  not  only  derived  from  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  but  as- 
sume Jewish  interests,  meet  special  Jewish  difficulties  and  appeal 
to  Jewish  motives  and  sympathies.  Gentile  converts  are  of  course 
famiUar  with  the  Old  Testament.  But  on  the  supposition  that 
they  are  tempted  to  return  to  heathenism,  arguments  from  the 
Old  Testament  would  not  be  effective  to  men  rejecting  the  mani- 
fold witness  of  the  Gospel  which  had  originally  led  them  to  recog- 
nize the  Old  Testament  as  one  of  the  forms  of  the  witness  they 
were  now  supposed  to  be  repudiating.  The  reference  to  the 
primitive  instruction  in  6,  1  ff.  does  not  prove  the  heathen  pro- 


306    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

venance  of  the  readers;  nor  is  it  determined,  as  will  appear,  by 
the  warnings  against  departing  from  the  living  God  or  treading 
under  foot  the  Son  of  God.  It  should  be  noticed  in  this  connection 
that  many  scholars  who  hold  the  Gentile  destination  of  the  Epistle, 
would  agree  with  Zahn  that  the  readers  are  not  disturbed  by  false 
doctrine  or  errorists.  McGiffert,  Apos.  Age,  p.  466  ff.,  views  the 
threatened  apostasy  as  not  due  to  the  influence  of  Judaism,  or 
as  connected  with  it  in  any  way;  the  discussion  of  the  priestly 
office  of  Christ  and  the  comparison  between  the  old  and  new 
covenants  not  being  written  to  convince  skeptical  minds,  but  to 
arouse  the  courage  and  zeal  of  beHeving  but  weak  and  fainting 
souls,  upon  the  occasion,  p.  469,  of  external  persecution.  Ropes, 
Apos.  Age,  269  f.,  also  finds  a  purely  practical  aim  in  guarding  the 
Gentile  readers  against  a  relapse  into  reUgious  indifference  and 
a  worldly  Ufe;  and  similarly  Windisch,  Hb.  bf.,  pp.  45  afid  111  views 
the  situation  of  the  readers  as  that  of  general  religious  exhaustion, 
and  not  an  inclination  to  any  reUgious  false  doctrine,  specifically 
not  to  a  Judaistic  or  syncretistic  gnosis.  MacNeill  too,  Christology 
of  Hbws.,  holds,  p.  13  ff.,  that  the  writer  fears  not  the  attractive 
power  of  any  definite  form  of  reUgion,  but  the  subtle  power  of 
unbelief.  He  adds,  however,  p.  115  ff.,  that  in  the  writer's  own 
frame  of  thought,  the  three  strands  of  classic  Judaism,  Alexandri- 
anism  and  primitive  Christianity  are  'filled  out  also  from  the 
syncretism  of  the  mystery  religions  of  his  day.  This  element 
may  be  small,  but  it  is  an  influence  which  must  be  noted.* 

These  concluding  statements  recall  another  construction  of  the 
situation  which  finds  the  speculative  interests  revealed  in  the 
Epistle  not  primarily  in  the  writer  but  in  opponents.  In  this 
case  the  persecuted  readers  are  also  exposed  to  speculative  teach- 
ings tending  to  perv^ert  both  the  Apostolic  Gospels  and  the  funda- 
mentals of  the  Jewish  faith.  Thus  Peake,  Hbws.,  p.  11  f.,  notes 
as  the  occasion  not  only  moral  defect  and  intellectual  stagnation 
but  also  intellectual  error:  Hhe  danger  of  falling  under  the  fas- 
cination of  varied  forms  of  false  teaching  foreign  to  Christianity.' 
Haring,  Stud.  u.  KriL,  1891,  pp.  589-598,  proposed  as  the  occasion 
the  danger  of  succumbing  to  the  speculative  Judaism  of  Alex- 
andrianism,  in  the  most  general  sense:  without  circumcision  or 
full  legal  demands;  illuminated,  spiritualized;  open  towards  and 
adopting  the  tendencies  of  the  Age,  yet  with  complete  connection 


i 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  307 

of  its  own  ideas  with  elements  of  positive  religion;  seductive  also 
as  a  protection  against  external  dangers,  since  the  Christians 
were  increasingly  exposed  to  persecution.  'Departing  from  the 
living  God/  which  could  not  be  a  return  to  Judaism,  is  conceivable 
as  a  relapse  of  heathen  Christians  into  this  speculatively  tinged 
Judaism,  '  for  this  had  really  no  living  God  in  the  sense  of  actual 
religion.'  Several  other  constructions  of  the  historical  occasion 
would  seem  to  tend  in  various  degrees  towards  such  a  view. 
Moffatt,  Introd.,  pp.  445,  449  f.,  though  with  careful  reserves, 
conceives  as  a  subordinate  factor  in  the  situation  of  the  readers, 
the  possibiUty  that  they  have  been  nourishing  their  faith  on  the 
Levitical  portions  of  the  Old  Testament;  and  that  they  are  ex- 
posed to  the  seductive  tendencies  of  a  speculative  Judaism  allied 
to  certain  ritualistic  and  sacerdotal  procUvities,  similar  perhaps 
to  those  controverted  in  Romans  or  Colossians;  with  this  was  the 
presence  of  elements  drawn  from  pagan  cults.  Bacon  too,  In- 
trod.,  p.  145,  finds  the  contents  adapted  to  those  in  danger  of 
overrating  the  Old  Testament;  and,  p.  148  f.,  exposed  to  both 
orthodox  and  syncretistic  worship  of  the  letter  of  the  law.  The 
Judaism  opposed  in  the  Epistle  is  the  '  divers  and  strange  teach- 
ings';  and  if  we  may  judge  from  the  effort  of  chapters  1  and  2, 
tendencies  as  in  Colossae  toward  gratuitous  self-humiliation  and 
worshiping  of  the  angels;  and  the  ordinances  of  the  law  were 
inculcated  in  a  mystical  and  eclectic  spirit,  reminding  us  rather 
of  the  false  teachers  of  the  Pastorals. 

These  latter  constructions  imply  in  general  that  the  speculative 
influence  was  a  propaganda  of  opponents  outside  the  Church. 
There  remains,  however,  the  possibility  that  it  was  exerted  within 
the  Church  by  a  speculative  Judaism  which  included  in  its  syn- 
cretism Christian  elements  and  professions.  This  view  is  advo- 
cated by  Weinel,  Bib.  Theol  N.  T.,  p.  432:  'In  Hebrews  which  in  its 
positive  doctrines  is  nearest  Colossians,  the  supposition  of  a  con- 
flict against  this  movement,  i.  e.,  Jewish  Christian  gnosis,  first 
brings  unity  into  the  otherwise  completely  disconnected  theses  of 
the  polemic  against  the  doctrine  of  angels,  which  lowers  Christ  and 
yet  will  not  allow  him  to  be  considered  as  Man;  and  against 
Judaism  with  temple,  sacrifice  and  priesthood.'  He,  however, 
p.  455,  considers  the  whole  conduct  of  the  discussions  of  the 
Epistle  as  purely  academic  apologetics. 


308    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

It  is  obvious  that  all  theories  of  the  occasion  and  aim  of  the 
Epistle  must,  in  the  absence  of  data  as  to  the  author,  destination 
and  date,  be  conjectural.  Our  sole  criterion  for  their  probability  is 
their  accordance  with  such  indications  of  the  situation  and  purpose 
as  is  supplied  by  internal  evidence.  We  therefore  proceed,  in  a 
survey  of  these  indications,  to  inquire  whether  with  Weinel  an 
opposing  gnosis  is  to  be  assumed,  and  also  whether  it  presents  the 
general  features  of  the  movement  as  constructed  from  the  Pauline 
Epistles.  In  such  a  case  we  should  of  course  expect  special  em- 
phases on  these  features  and  a  distinct  mode  of  their  treatment,  due 
both  to  the  individuality  of  the  writer  and  to  the  definite  situation 
of  the  readers,  who  may  have  been  exposed  to  a  special  form  of  false 
teaching  by  some  one  of  'the  infinite  variety  of  gnostic  sects.*  An 
affirmative  decision  as  to  gnostic  references,  it  may  also  be  prem- 
ised would  not  determine  either  the  date  or  destination  of  the 
Epistle;  since  on  the  view  we  have  advocated,  a  gnostic  movement 
was  operative  within  the  Church  from  50  a.  d.  onward,  and 
probably  in  all  the  quarters  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  to  which  the 
Epistle  has  been  variously  assigned. 

We  are  first  impressed  with  the  general  correspondence  recog- 
nized by  numerous  writers  between  the  implications  of  the  argu- 
ments in  Hebrews  and  the  polemic  against  the  errorists  in  Colosse, 
written  about  63  a.  d.  It  is  most  clearly  marked  in  the  two 
opening  chapters.  As  in  Col.  the  basis  of  the  argument  against  the 
opponents  is  in  1,  1-4,  the  supreme  and  final  revelation  of  God  in 
Christ,  who  is  again  as  in  Col.  1,  16  ff.  cp.  II  Cor.  4,  4,  the  eUojv  of 
the  invisible  God;  and  as  Son  is  the  heir,  creator  and  ruler  of  the 
universe.  Any  gnostic  theory  of  creation  and  rule  by  intermediary 
powers,  or  of  evil  as  inherent  in  creation,  is  thereby  repelled  in  both 
Epistles.  And  similarly  in  both  is  the  emphasis  on  his  redemption, 
followed  by  his  exaltation.  In  the  immediate  development  of  these 
opening  statements,  the  Son's  superiority  to  angels  is  declared  in  a 
series  of  arguments  implying  a  direct  opposition  to  the  false  doc- 
trines of  angelic  mediators  of  revelation  and  redemption  in  Colos- 
sians.  The  commentaries  present  in  detail  the  Christ's  superiority 
as  the  only  Son  of  the  Father,  and  the  object  of  angelic  worship; 
as  the  divine  heir  and  creator  of  a  universe  in  which  angels  have  but 
'ministerial  and  transitory  offices';  as  sharing  the  divine  throne, 
around  which  the  angels  serve  and  from  which  they  are  sent 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  309 

forth  not  to  receive  worship  but  to  minister  to  the  heirs  of 
salvation. 

In  still  more  definite  contradiction  of  any  doctrine  of  angelic 
mediation  of  this  salvation,  it  is  shown,  2,  3-18,  that  human  re- 
demption and  perfection  could  only  be  effected  by  a  method  which 
no  angel  could  follow;  a  method  moreover  in  direct  contradiction 
of  gnostic  docetic  christology.  For  it  is  a  redemption  which  was 
possible  only  by  a  real  incarnation,  passion,  death  and  exaltation. 
The  Son  and  Lord  who,  1,  3,  made  purification  of  sins,  is  now,  2,  9, 
the  human  Jesus  who  has  been  made  a  little  lower  than  angels, 
made  in  all  things  like  unto  his  brethren;  and  since  they  are  sharers 
of  flesh  and  blood,  he  also  in  like  manner  partook  of  the  same.  For 
not  of  angels  doth  he  take  hold,  but  he  taketh  hold  of  the  seed  of 
Abraham.  And  this  real  union  with  humanity  by  incarnation  was 
for  its  redemption  by  equally  real  suffering  under  temptation;  by 
the  suffering  of  death,  in  order  that  by  death  he  might,  cp.  Col.  2, 
15,  bring  to  nought  him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is  the 
devil,  and  might,  cp.  Col.  1,  21  f .,  deliver  those  subject  to  bondage 
through  fear  of  death.  Being  himself  perfected  by  these  sufferings, 
crowned  with  glory  and  honor  on  account  of  the  sufferings  of  death, 
he  is  the  author,  iipxriybs  of  salvation  of  the  many  sons.  The  re- 
demption in  this  union  with  his  brethren  by  incarnation,  death  and 
resurrection,  is  finally  summed  up  as  his  work  as  high  priest  to 
make  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  And  it  is  also,  in 
contrast  to  gnostic  exclusiveness,  a  universal  salvation,  a  tasting 
death  for  every  man,  cp.  also  2, 15. 

This  concluding  description  of  the  Son  as  high  priest  develops 
the  statement  concerning  his  purification  of  sins,  1,  4,  and  the 
reference  to  his  session  as  Melchizedek  priest  in  1,  13,  in  connection 
with  the  exposition  of  Ps.  8,  in  2,  6-16.  It  controls  also  the 
succeeding  teachings  and  exhortations  in  3,  1-10,  18,  whose  sub- 
ject is  Jesus  the  high  priest  though  whom  we  have  our  entrance 
into  the  holiest,  as  the  basis  for  the  exhortations  to  hold  fast  the 
confession  of  our  hope  without  wavering  under  external  and  in- 
ternal oppositions. 

This  declaration  of  his  high  priesthood  as  summed  up  in  2,  17,  is 
repeated  with  the  same  significant  emphases  of  the  two  opening 
chapters,  in  the  summaries  at  4,  14;  5,  7;  7,  26;  8,  1;  10,  19:  his 
divine  sonship;  his  incarnate  life  as  Jesus,  Son  of  God,  in  the  days  of 


310    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

his  flesh;  his  sinlessness,  the  reality  of  his  temptations  and  his 
ability  to  sympathize  with  our  weaknesses;  his  human  obedience  as 
Son,  his  one  sacrifice  of  himself,  his  perfecting  by  these  sufferings; 
his  heavenly  exaltation  and  priesthood,  in  which  he  is  the  author  of 
salvation:  forgiveness,  direct  access  to  the  throne  of  grace,  boldness 
to  enter  into  the  holiest,  and  this  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  the 
new  and  living  way,  through  the  vail,  that  is  his  flesh. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  theme  emerges  from  time  to  time  this 
same  special  interest  in  affirming  redemption  by  a  really  incarnate 
and  dying  heavenly  Christ;  a  perfected  head  and  representative  of 
humanity  as  the  author,  apxr)yb%  of  its  salvation,  the  forerunner 
entering  within  the  vail  on  our  behalf,  the  mediator  and  surety 
of  the  new  Covenant,  the  Son  over  God's  house,  which  house  are 
we;  all  of  which  relations  are  gathered  up  at  the  close  in  his  descrip- 
tion as  the  great  high  priest  over  the  house  of  God.  As  every  high 
priest  is  taken  from  among  men  in  behalf  of  men,  our  Lord  hath 
partaken  of  and  come  forth  from  Judah;  and  using  the  LXX  text  of 
Ps.  40,  came  into  the  world  at  his  incarnation,  in  a  body  God  pre- 
pared for  him.  By  the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  we  have 
been  consecrated.  In  his  own  blood  he  entered  into  the  holiest :  the 
blood  of  the  Christ  offered  through  his  eternal  spirit.  And  from 
his  death  as  mediator  of  the  new  Covenant  proceed  the  blessings  of 
forgiveness  and  eternal  inheritance. 

These  references  to  his  true  humanity  and  redemptive  death  are 
of  course  essential  to  the  writer's  exposition  of  Christ's  high  priest- 
hood. But  since  his  several  recapitulations  of  it  are  linked  with  his 
presentation  of  it  in  the  two  opening  chapters  which  are  closely 
related  to  the  Pauline  refutation  of  the  false  teaching  in  Colossians, 
we  can  recognize  with  Weinel  that  the  interest  of  chapters  1  and  2, 
in  repelling  a  false  doctrine  of  the  person  and  redemption  of  Christ, 
is  reflected  in  the  teaching  concerning  his  high  priesthood,  and 
unifies  the  several  sections  of  the  Epistle.  Adopting  this  view  of  a 
reference  to  the  opposition  of  a  speculative  Judaism  within  the 
Church  and  of  the  suggestions  of  its  similarity  to  the  errors  com- 
batted  in  Colossians  and  the  Pastorals,  and,  therefore,  to  the 
general  gnostic  movement  we  have  found  in  the  earlier  Epistles, 
we  can  further  infer  that  among  the  occasions  for  the  ex- 
position of  Christ's  priesthood  was  not  only  the  need  of  rebuttal 
of  a  denial  of  the  redemptive  death  of  an  incarnate  heavenly 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  311 

Christ,  but  also  of  the  opponents'  attitude  to  historic,  objective 
revelation. 

The  Pauline  Epistles  pointed  to  errorists  claiming  superiority 
in  their  individual  gift  of  the  Spirit,  both  to  the  Old  Testament 
and  to  the  Apostolic  tradition  of  the  Gospel.  In  antitheses  to 
such  a  position,  this  Epistle  opens  with  the  affirmation  that  God 
spoke  in  many  portions  and  modes  in  the  Old  Testament  prophets; 
and  in  the  quotations  that  follow,  instead  of  the  usual  formula 
'it  is  written,'  it  affirms  that  God  is  the  speaker.  Even  in  the 
Tabernacle  structure  the  Holy  Spirit  is  recognized  as  *  signifjdng  ^ 
its  meaning.  Likewise  the  Gospel  salvation  is  divinely  revealed: 
having  at  the  first  been  spoken  by  the  Lord,  confirmed  unto  us  by 
the  Apostolic  witness,  with  God's  accompanying  witness  by  signs 
and  wonders  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Upon  this  basis  of 
revelation,  the  Apostolic  tradition  of  salvation  in  the  incarnate, 
dying  and  exalted  Christ,  can  be  expounded  in  its  relation  to  the 
utterance  and  oath  of  God  in  Ps.  110,  whose  discussion  as  Wind- 
isch,  p.  120,  states  'forms  in  fact  the  great  central  section,  4, 
14-10,  18.'  Following  Haring,  p.  595  ff.,  we  may  see  in  the 
writer's  interpretation  of  the  Psalm  and  of  the  accompanying 
references  to  the  Old  Testament  sacrificial  institutions,  his  rela- 
tion to  the  opponents'  method  of  interpreting  their  Scriptures. 
By  these  speculative  Jews,  'the  Old  Testament  religion  was 
made  a  danger  for  Christians,  since  they  taught  them  to  discover 
in  it  images,  copies  of  eternal  truths,  of  a  heavenly  world  of  ideas. 
But  to  the  author,  the  Old  Covenant  was  a  copy,  a  shadow  in  a 
sense  which  goes  beyond  and  contradicts  the  sense  of  the  oppo- 
nents. It  was  not  merely  an  allegory,  but  a  historical  preparation, 
actual  prophecy  of  the  New  Covenant.  Jesus,  to  whose  revela- 
tion and  priesthood  the  Old  Covenant  points  both  by  the  way  of 
type  and  copy  and  also  by  the  way  of  historical  preparation,  is 
the  archetype  of  all  types;  and  is  the  reality  of  this  highest  arche- 
type in  the  simple  literal  sense  as  Christians  understand  it,  as 
in  their  experience  they  know  that  access  to  God  is  revealed 
through  the  one  sacrifice  of  their  actually  exalted  high  priest, 
and  that  their  unerring  hope  is  assured.'  ^^    Haring  thus  postulates 

*^  Jowett,  Interpretation  of  Scriptures,  p.  271  f .,  concludes  his  essay  on  St. 
Paul  and  Philo  with  statements  similar  to  those  of  Haring.  'There  is  truth 
in  sajring  that  ...  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  a  higher  use  is  made  of 


312    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

a  speculative  Jewish  teaching  and  its  attitude  to  historic  revela- 
tion, from  the  form  of  the  author's  interpretation  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  its  sacrificial  system,  on  the  principle,  p.  594: 
^it  is,  in  accordance  with  parallel  New  Testament  instances,  an- 
tecedently probable  that  the  utilization  of  definite  forms  of 
structure  in  the  interest  of  polemic,  serves  for  the  paralyzing  of 
their  utiUzation  with  an  antagonistic  purpose.'  And  as  already 
stated,  the  doctrinal  emphases  in  the  contents  of  the  exposition 
can  be  similarly  regarded  as  antitheses  to  concrete  denials  of  the 
real  incarnation  and  death  of  the  heavenly  Christ,  as  the  sole 
ground  and  means  of  a  real  forgiveness,  divine  access  and  inheri- 
tance by  hope. 

The  main  division  of  ten  chapters  of  doctrinal  exposition  re- 
sembles the  doctrinal  section  of  Col.  1-2,  3,  in  the  method  of  posi- 
tive affirmation  which  would  counteract  denials  of  christology  and 
the  Christian  hope  as  the  inspiration  of  the  walk  in  love,  in  the 
fellowship  of  the  one  body  of  Christ.  But  unlike  Colossians  and 
the  Prison  group  of  Letters,  there  is  no  description  of  the  errorists. 
In  the  interwoven  hortatory  section,  however,  we  may  find  a  few 
additional  intimations  of  the  character  of  the  opposing  teaching, 
from  possible  allusions  to  its  threatened  effect  upon  the  readers. 
If  then  the  '  perverted  and  alien  teachings '  were  of  a  gnostic 
character,  they  would  include  the  assertion  that  the  previous 
Apostolic  teaching  was  but  rudimentary,  and  would  also  promise 

the  Alexandrian  ideas,  and  the  figures  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation.  That  is 
to  say,  the  form  ...  is  an  expression  of  the  same  tendency  which  we  trace 
in  the  Eastern  or  Alexandrian  Gnosis.  But  admitting  this  similarity  of 
form,  the  difference  of  spirit  which  separates  the  author  of  the  Hebrews  from 
Philo,  is  hardly  less  wide  than  that  which  divides  him  from  St.  Paul. 
And  although  he  approaches  more  nearly  to  Philo  in  his  conception  of  faith, 
and  carries  the  allegorical  method  further  than  St.  Paul,  ...  he  too 
never  leaves  the  groundwork  of  fact  and  spiritual  religion.  Alexandrianism 
knew  nothing  of  the  God  who  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  the  earth;  of 
the  victory  over  sin  and  death;  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  It  lifted  up  the  veil 
the  temple,  to  see  in  a  glass  only  dreams  of  its  own  creation.'  Cp.  ^so,  p.  269. 
'Philo  has  no  connection  with  the  prophets,  and  no  real  connection  with  the 
law.  To  the  former  he  seldom  refers,  while  to  the  latter  he  assigns  a  purely 
arbitrary  meaning.  He  does  not  catch  the  real  preparations  and  anticipations 
of  a  higher  mode  of  thought  in  the  books  of  Moses  themselves.  He  is  unable 
to  see  the  light  shining  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day  in  the  Psalmist 
and  the  Propheto.' 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  313 

maturity  and  spiritual  perfection  by  means  of  the  new  system. 
It  is,  therefore,  significant  that  in  the  first  direct  description  of 
the  readers,  5,  11-6,  12,  they  are  warned  that  they  are  in  reaUty 
vfiTTLOL;  and  as  immature  still  needing  milk,  not  the  solid  food  of  the 
T^Xctot  who  have  been  trained  to  discriminate  the  good  and  evil. 
Both  the  detailed  statements  and  the  connection  of  the  passage  with 
the  warning  of  danger  of  lapsing  from  the  initial  Christian  faith, 
suggest  an  antignostic  allusion  in  view  of  the  close  parallels  in  pol- 
emic statements:  I  Cor.  3,  Iff.;  14,  20;  and  Rom.  16,  19,  in  their 
contexts;  Eph.  4, 13  ff.,  cp.  Philippians  1,  9  f.;  3,  15.  The  contrast 
between  his  confidence,  6, 9  ff.,  in  the  readers'  loyalty  and  its  reward 
and  his  warning  of  the  dread  issues  of  the  implied  false  teaching,  is 
presented,  vss.  7,  8,  as  that  between  soil  bearing  ^orkvn)  evBtroSj 
herbs  meet  for  them  for  whose  sake  it  is  tilled  and  blessed  by  God, 
and  soil  putting  forth  thorns  and  thistles,  which  is  rejected, 
d56Kt/ios,  nigh  unto  a  curse,  whose  end  is  to  be  burned.  The 
figure,  as  constantly  in  previous  New  Testament  polemic  against 
gnostic  errorists,  is  taken  from  Genesis,  1-3:  the  divine  creation 
of  plants  with  the  blessing  of  increase,  and  their  appointment  for 
the  food  of  man.  Gen.  1,  11  f.  29;  and  the  divine  curse,  3,  17,  on 
the  ground  because  of  the  eating  of  the  forbidden  tree  of  gnosis. 
The  possibility  that  thorns  and  thistles  and  their  rejection  and 
burning  could  allude  to  false  teachers  and  their  doom,  is  shown 
by  Christ's  use  of  the  same  figure,  Mtw.  7,  17  ff.,  in  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  fruits  and  fate  of  false  prophets.  Similarly  Ignatius, 
Ephes.  10,  3,  warns  against  the  Poriivrj  of  the  devil,  in  concluding 
the  reference,  9,  1,  to  ^certain  persons  passed  through  you  from 
yonder,  having  evil  doctrine.'  In  Philad.  3  abstinence  from  evil 
herbs  is  likewise  urged  in  a  passage  referring  to  false  teaching; 
and  in  Trail.  5  f.  the  readers  are  as  vijirtot  to  abstain  from  strange 
Pot6lvtj,  which  is  heresy;  cp.  also  Trail.  11.  These  passages  seem 
to  be  based  on  Hbws.  6,  7  f.,  and  in  any  case  support  the  inter- 
pretation of  these  verses  as  alluding  to  errorists. 

Nothing,  however,  is  said  in  the  Epistle  as  to  the  source  of  their 
doctrine:  whether  as  in  the  earlier  Letters,  in  visions,  revelations 
or  other  alleged  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  The  author's  method  is  the 
positive  presentation  of  his  own  doctrine  with  its  bases  in  the 
Old  Testament,  the  revelation  in  Christ,  the  Apostolic  tradition, 
the  word  of  the  Lord  as  spoken  by  the  hegoumenoi,  and  in  the 


314    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

personal  experience  of  the  readers.  Any  possible  claim  to  special 
revelations  through  angelic  mediation  or  in  exclusive  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  are  repelled  by  the  angelology  of  the  first  chapters,  by  the 
affirmations  of  the  common  participation  in  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit 
in  2,  4  and  6,  4,  as  well  as  by  the  declaration  of  the  privilege  of  all 
believers,  of  direct  access  to  God. 

The  perverted  and  alien  teachings  can  be  conjectured  as  alien 
to  the  topics  of  the  Christian  didache  summarized  in  10,  22-25. 
The  TTOtKtXai  StSaxat  concerning  the  person  and  work  of  Christ 
and  the  Christian  hope  are  refuted  in  the  doctrinal  section  es- 
tablishing the  readers  'in  full  assurance  of  faith  and  unwavering 
hope,'  which  are  also  the  topics  of  the  succeeding  exhortations  in 
11,  1-12,  13.  The  remainder  of  the  hortatory  section,  12,  14- 
13,  17,  develops  the  two  remaining  topics  of  10,  24  f.:  love  and 
good  works,  and  the  eirLavvayooyrj;  the  portions  of -the  didache 
referring  to  Christian  morals  and  Church  fellowship,  cp.  Seeberg, 
Didache  d.  Judenthums  u.  d.  Urchristenheit,  p.  112.  But  the  special 
character  of  the  development  of  these  topics  indicates  that  the 
injunctions  are  not  concerned  with  the  general  conduct  of  the 
readers,  but  with  their  relations  to  a  special  disturbing  influence. 
This  is  clear  in  the  matter  of  Church  fellowship.  The  separatist 
spirit  is  distinctly  described  as  only  the  custom  of  some,  KaOus 
edos  TLaiv.  The  need  of  'stirring  up  to  love  and  good  works' 
appears  likewise  to  be  not  the  need  of  the  Church  as  a  whole,  but 
of  some  element  within  it.  For  in  6,  9  it  is  commended,  with 
assurance  of  God's  remembrance,  for  its  work  and  love  shown 
both  in  past  and  present  ministrations  to  the  saints.  Yet,  there 
in  vs.  11  is  added  a  desire  that  each  individual,  'iKaaros  vfjLcoPf 
should  show  the  same  zeal.  So,  too,  in  10,  24,  the  exhortation  is 
not  simply  to  zeal  in  good  works  but  to  the  Church's  ministry  to 
its  individual  members:  KaTavodtxev  aWrjXovs  to  stir  up  unto  love 
and  good  works.  And  in  the  development  of  this  in  12,  14  f.  the 
ministry  of  personal  attention  and  watchfulness  is  more  definitely 
urged  as  iinaKOTrovvTes,  'looking  carefully'  as  to  the  intrusion  of 
an  influence  of  individuals  described  as  'any  man  drawing  back 
from  the  grace  of  God,  any  root  of  bitterness  troubling  you  and 
thereby  the  many  be  defiled,  any  fornicator  or  profane  person 
as  Esau,  who  for  a  mess  of  meat  sold  his  own  birthright.'  This 
peculiar  formulation  is  not  the  usual  warning  to  Christian  readers 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  315 

against  the  commission  of  familiar  forms  of  sins,  but  as  stated  is  a 
warning  against  the  influence  of  some  tendency  to  such  sins  in- 
truding into  the  Church.  And  again,  its  perversion  of  grace,  its 
divisive  spirit  as  a  root  of  bitterness  leading  to  defilement  of  the 
many,  the  fornication,  profaneness,  /SejSryXos,  and  contempt  for 
the  Christian  inheritance  and  hope,  all  leading  to  apostasy  and 
divine  rejection  from  the  kingdom  point  to  characteristic  features 
of  the  gnostic  movement. 

In  13,  1-6  only  some  five  precepts  of  the  Two  Ways,  cp.  See- 
berg,  Hb.hf.,  141,  are  selected  for  exhortation.  Yet  from  earlier 
references  in  the  Epistle  it  appears  that  the  readers  are  already 
observing  them.  Their  brotherly  love  is  simply  to  continue. 
Their  hospitality  to  strangers,  remembrances  of  those  in  bonds 
and  afflictions,  absence  of  covetousness,  has  been  affirmed  in 
6,  10;  10,  32  ff.  Fornication,  in  12,  16,  is  not  mentioned  as  a  sin 
practiced  by  the  readers,  but  as  a  sin  against  whose  entrance  into 
the  Church,  they  were  to  be  on  guard.  The  occasion,  therefore, 
for  this  selection  is,  not  the  non-observance  of  the  precepts  by  the 
readers,  but  as  in  12,  15  f.,  the  need  of  warning  against  the  out- 
standing immoral  tendencies  of  the  alien  teachings.  These  tend- 
encies are  here,  breaches  of  the  Church  fellowship  by  the  false 
teachers'  separatist  and  exclusive  spirit,  without  brotherly  love 
or  welcome  of  Christian  strangers;  refusal  to  accept  or  to  sympa- 
thize with  sufferings  for  the  GospeFs  sake  in  fellowship  with 
Christ's  sufferings,  being  conformed  unto  his  death,  Philip.  3,  10, 
cp.  Liitgert,  Irrlehrer  d.  Pastoralhriefe,  p.  75  ff . ;  and  the  love  of 
money,  which  characterized  the  errorists  in  Thessalonica,  Corinth 
and  in  the  Pastorals.  Especially,  there  was  a  tendency  as  in  all 
four  groups  of  the  Pauline  Epistles,  to  reject  marriage  and  at  the 
same  time  to  treat  fornication  with  indifference.  Hence,  the 
assertion:  'Honorable  is  marriage  among  all';  and  'God  will 
judge  fornicators  and  adulterers.' 

These  indications  of  the  general  features  of  gnostics'  teaching 
concerning  morals  are,  finally,  supported  by  the  reference  to 
their  attitude  towards  the  Church's  worship  and  ministry.  The 
readers  are  exhorted,  10,  25,  against  receding  from  the  assembly 
of  themselves.  This  has  been  understood  by  Zahn  as  an  injunc- 
tion not  to  remove  from  their  own  house  church  in  Rome  to 
another,    But  as  Windisch  notes,  the  duty  of  exhortation,  vs.  25b, 


316    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

could  be  equally  well  fulfilled  in  a  new  Church  home.  More 
usually  it  is  viewed  as  a  call  not  to  abandon  Christianity  for  the 
Jewish  synagogue;  or  when  the  readers  are  considered  to  be  Gen- 
tile converts,  not  to  return  to  their  former  life.  Such  an  abandon- 
ment would,  however,  be  one  definite  act  which  would  not  be 
described,  *as  the  custom  of  some  is.'  Windisch  avoids  this  ob- 
jection by  translating  '  neglect  not  our  assembly'  and  by  inter- 
preting the  passage  as  referring  to  the  duty  of  regular  attendance 
at  the  assemblies.  But  this  exposition  accords  neither  with  the 
meaning  of  iyKaToKeiiro},  nor  with  the  wider  outlook  of  the  con- 
text, nor  with  the  succeeding  warning,  which  is  the  most  solemn 
in  the  whole  Epistle. 

Westcott  accounts  for  Hhe  evil  habit,'  as  arising  from  three 
motives:  partly  to  escape  Jewish  hostility;  partly  to  enjoy  the 
greater  attractions  of  Jewish  assemblies;  partly  Hhrough  self- 
confidence,  as  though  they  no  longer  needed  the  assistance  of 
ordinary  common  worship,  where  the  general  average  of  spiritual 
life  might  be  counted  too  low  to  aid  more  mature  believers.' 
But  it  is  evident  that  these  are  discoimected  motives  which  would 
not  combine  into  a  threefold  motive  of  the  definite  group  in  the 
writer's  mind.  Only  one  of  them  can  be  the  actual  motive;  and 
since  we  find  no  indication  of  the  existence  of  the  first  two,  we 
conclude  it  is  the  third  which  points  to  the  concrete  occasion 
of  the  exhortation. 

In  it,  iTn<TVPay(i)yii  iavrcav  recalls  to  us  Paul's  description  of 
the  assembly  for  worship  in  I  Cor.  14,  23.26:  ^av  avveXdr)  rj  iKKKrj- 
ala  6\rj  iirl  t6  avrd;  and  iyKaTa\elTrovT€s,  his  references,  I  Cor.  11, 
17  ff.  to  (T-xi(TnaTa  when  they  'come  together  M  t6  avrb.'  These 
we  have  considered  to  point  to  the  errorists'  separatist  attitude 
in  the  assembly  for  the  Agapae  and  Eucharist,  both  for  doctrinal 
reasons  and  also  as  Westcott  suggests  in  regard  to  Hbws.  10,  25, 
through  self-confidence,  as  no  longer  needing,  as  mature  believers, 
the  assistance  of  ordinary  common  worship.  Westcott  himself 
finds  traces  of  'forsaking  the  gathering  of  our  own  selves  together 
for  fellowship  in  divine  worship,'  in  Jude  19:  'those  who  cause 
divisions.'  The  Didache,  ch.  16,  2  f.,  is  a  similar  parallel  both! 
in  wording  and  context.  And  among  other  parallels  in  the  Apos- 
tolic Fathers,  our  view  of  the  passage  and  of  I  Cor.  11,  17,  is  most 
distinctly  illustrated  in  Barnabas  4,   10:  'Do  not  entering  in^ 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  317 

privily,  stand  apart  from  yourselves  as  if  ye  were  already  justi- 
fied, but  assemble  yourselves  together  and  consult  concerning 
the  common  welfare.'  ^^ 

This  topic  of  the  assembly  for  church  fellowship  and  worship  is 
moreover  developed  in  13,  7-17,  in  the  order  of  the  topics  in 
10,  22  £f.,  after  the  discussion  of  the  themes  of  faith,  hope  and  the 
good  works  of  love.  Spitta  ^^  also  recognizes  these  verses  as  a 
definite  compact  section  concerning  Christian  assemblies  for  wor- 
ship in  Eucharist  and  Agapae.  In  view  of  its  selection  and  treat- 
ment of  special  topics  relating  to  Church  order,  it  too  may  have 
been  constructed  with  allusion  to  the  contrary  custom  of  those 
who  cause  separations;  as  in  10,  25  the  exhortations  are  to  be 
based  on  the  approach  of  the  Day,  which  contemporary  errorists 
denied.  The  special  topics  in  13,  7-17  are  the  Church's  teaching, 
worship  and  discipline.  The  first  two  are  presented  in  direct  con- 
trast to  some  opposing  tendency;  and  the  third  will  also  be  found 
to  suggest  a  similar  contrast. 

The  exhortations  of  10,  25  are  to  be  based  in  13,  7  f.  on  the 
Apostolic  tradition  of  the  hegoumenoi  who  have  spoken  the  word 
of  the  Lord,  and  on  their  faith  in  Jesus  unchangeably  the  Christ. 
And  this  in  contrast  to  the  perverted  or  mixed  and  alien  teachings 
of  vs.  9;  and  is  also  in  renewal  of  the  exhortation  of  2,  1-4  against 
drifting  away  from  the  things  heard,  from  the  salvation  which 
having  at  the  first  been  spoken  by  the  Lord  was  confirmed  unto  us 
by  them  that  heard. 

We  can  also  observe  with  Spitta  as  cited  above,  whose  view 
Goetz  is  disposed  to  favor,'*'*  a  contrast  in  vss.  9-16  between 
the  worship  of  the  Church  in  the  Eucharist  and  the  Jewish  sac- 
rificial meals.  The  approach  to  the  interpretation  of  the  passage 
can  best  be  made,  not  by  a  decision  as  to  the  disputed  meaning  of 
the  *  altar,'  ^^  but  by  a  determination  of  the  reference  in  jSpcbjuara 

«  Mil  Kad'  eavTovs  €v8vvovt€s  ixovk^tre  cbs  ^ht]  BedLKaiconivoL,  dXX* 
cttI  t6  avTO  avvepx^lJ'^voL  (TVV^rjTelTe  irepl  rod  kolvjj  (TVfjL(f>ipovTOS. 

*^  Zur  Geschichte  u.  Literatur  d.  Urchristenthums,  I,  p.  325. 

**  Die  heutige  Abendmahlsfragef  1907,  p.  195. 

*^  Moberly,  Ministerial  Priesthood,  p.  269n.,  sees  the  possibility  of  uniting 
the  view  of  Lightfoot  that  'the  altar  is  the  congregation  assembled  for  Christian 
worship*  both  with  Westcott's  primary  reference  of  the  words  to  the  Cross 
on  which  Christ  offered  himself,  and  with  his  secondary  reference  of  them  to 
the  Eucharist. 


318    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

in  vs.  9.  We  can  reject  with  Windisch  the  view  that  it  is  to  the 
Holy  Communion;  or  to  Mosaic  food  laws;  or  on  Von  Soden's 
theory,  to  heathen  sacrificial  food.  Windisch  himself  deems  as 
most  probable  a  reference  to  the  influence  of  a  Jewish  syncretism 
even  in  Christian  circles.  This  we  beUeve  is  to  be  found  in  the 
section  as  a  whole,  but  not  in  jSpoj/iara  as  an  allusion  to  syncre- 
tistic  food  rules,  since  these  in  Colossians  and  the  Pastorals  refer 
to  abstinence  and  not  to  participation  of  foods.  We  therefore 
find  with  Spitta  and  Westcott,  the  reference  to  be  to  Jewish 
sacrificial  meals;  and  more  definitely  to  the  ^pco^ara  of  Hbws. 

9,  10,  which  are  there  in  the  same  contrast  to  vss.  11  ff.  as  in 
Hbws.  13,  10  ff. 

On  this  basis,  13,  10  ff.  presents  a  contrast  between  Christian 
worship  and  the  sacrificial  worship  of  Mosaism;  and  definitely,  in 
connection  with  the  Jewish  sin  offering  and  with  the. thank  offer- 
ing, accompanied  here  with  free  will  offerings  of  beneficence  and 
contributions.  Spitta  points  to  the  direct  comparison  of  the 
Eucharist  with  the  sin  offering  in  the  specific  references  to  the 
body  and  blood  of  the  temple  victims.  For  while  the  Jews  cannot 
eat  of  the  body  of  the  sin  offering  burnt  without  the  camp,  and 
while  the  blood  of  goats  and  bulls  offered  in  the  earthly  tabernacle 
can  never,  10,  4,  take  away  sins  or  perfect  the  worshiper,  9,  9; 

10,  1,  Christians  on  the  other  hand  feed  in  their  worship  on  Christ 
the  true  offering  for  sin,  and  are  consecrated  in  the  New  Covenant 
by  his  blood.  Their  confession  of  God's  name  through  Christ, 
in  worship  and  praise  is  in  vs.  15  a  thank  offering  of  praise:  'as 
bullocks,  our  Ups.'  Their  beneficence  and  contributions  in  the 
Eucharist  and  Agapse,  a  free  will  offering,  as  in  PhiUppians  4,  18, 
'an  odor  of  sweet  smell';  and  in  both  passages  is  a  sacrifice  ac- 
ceptable to  God.'^ 

The  traditional  view  of  the  occasion  of  this  passage  is  that  it  is 
the  readers'  disposition  to  return  to  Jewish  sacrificial  worship. 
Such  a  relapse  we  have  not,  however,  been  able  to  recognize  in  the 
rest  of  the  Epistle.  And  in  view,  moreover,  of  the  connection  of  the 
passage  with  the  preceding  and  following  injunctions  concerning 
the  hegoumenoi,  and  with  the  introductory  summary  in  10,  25, 

<•  Spitta,  p.  328.  "In  Hebrews  the  whole  Meal  obtains  the  character  of  a 
sacrificial  meal;  and  indeed  to  the  extent  that  all  its  characteristic  elements, 
prayer  and  beneficence  included,  fall  under  the  concept  of  Ovala." 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  319 

we  regard  it  as  evoked  by  the  'custom  of  some'  who  both  hold 
aloof  from  the  Church's  eucharistic  worship  and  also  reject  the 
teaching  and  authority  of  the  hegoumenoi.  Against  them  the 
writer  emphasizes,  as  Paul  in  I  Cor.  10,  16,  the  reality  of  feeding, 
and  in  the  context  on  the  sacrificed  body  of  the  heavenly  Christ, 
cp.  10,  10;  and  the  real  redemptive  significance  of  Christ's  own 
blood.  The  compressed  argument  is  here  again  in  terms  and  con- 
ceptions of  the  Jewish  sacrifices.  This  form  suggests  that  the 
passage  is  to  meet  the  same  situation  as  called  forth  the  discussion 
of  the  person  and  work  of  Christ  as  the  true  high  priest  transcend- 
ing the  Old  Testament  sacrificial  system.  Those  who  denied  the 
reaUty  of  the  blessings  in  the  eucharistic  worship,  would  be  also 
those  indicated  in  the  rest  of  the  Epistle  as  denying  the  high  priest- 
hood of  Christ  as  incarnate  and  atoning.  As  they  had  been  re- 
futed in  their  doctrinal  positions  by  means  of  the  argument  from 
the  Levitical  system,  so  their  opposition  to  the  Church  worship  is 
met  by  a  similar  argument  that  in  it  is  a  feeding  upon  a  sacrifice; 
the  full  reaUty  of  the  blessings  of  divine  conmiunion  and  worship 
towards  which  the  Old  Testament  sacrifices  pointed.  And  we  can 
make  here  an  additional  appUcation  of  Haring's  view,  sup.  p.  311, 
that  the  form  of  the  discussion  of  Christ's  priesthood  is  related 
to  the  opponents'  perversion  of  the  meaning  and  character  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  its  institutions.  The  Jewish  sacrifices 
though  but  temporary,  insufficient  to  perfect  the  worshipers,  a 
shadow,  10,  1,  of  ayada  ^liWovra,  were  nevertheless  not  to  be 
allegorized  into  mere  '  images  and  copies  of  eternal  truths  and  of  a 
heavenly  world  of  ideas ' ;  but  were  real  anticipations,  shadows  and 
copies  of  ayada  yepojjieva ;  of  the  blessings  which  were  realized  by 
Christ's  offering,  9,  11,  and  in  which  Christians  participate  in  their 
eucharistic  communion  with  Christ  the  eternal  high  priest. 

The  whole  section  closes  with  a  call  to  obedience  and  submission 
to  the  hegoumenoi.  Von  Soden  observes  here  evidence  of  some 
strained  relation,  since  the  readers  are  urged  to  submit  with  a 
view  to  obedience.  He  sees  also  in  the  mention  of  alien  teachings, 
a  reference  to  some  who  seek  to  force  themselves  forward  into  the 
place  of  the  departed  hegoumenoi;  and  he  conjectures  as  the 
general  cause  of  differences  in  the  Church,  the  question  of  ^pii^iara. 
In  our  construction  of  the  section,  we  have,  however,  found  in  all 
its  three  topics,  the  influence  of  those  who  oppose  the  Church 


320    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

teaching,  worship,  and  in  vs.  17  the  Church  authority.  The  con- 
crete occasion  of  this  last  opposition  is  indicated  by  the  reference 
to  the  pastoral  ministry  as  dominated  by  the  eschatological  con- 
victions concerning  the  Judgment  at  the  Parousia,  which  was 
repudiated  by  errorists,  but  which  in  10,  25  ff.  also  is  to  be  the 
subject  of  the  exhortations  in  the  Church  services.  The  mention 
of  the  lamentation  of  the  hegoumenoi  and  of  the  readers'  loss, 
a\v<nT€\is,  cp.  Luke  17,  2,  is  the  final  allusion  to  the  internal 
dangers  from  perversions  of  the  Church's  faith  and  life.  What 
they  were,  is  seen  in  the  expansion  and  explanation  of  this  closing 
warning  in  10,  26-29,  which  follow  upon  the  introductory  sum- 
mary of  the  four  topics  of  fundamental  instruction:  the  fearful 
expectation  of  judgment  of  those  who  tread  under  foot  the  Son 
of  God,  count  Hhe  blood  of  the  Covenant'  a  conamon  thing,  and 
insult  the  Spirit  of  grace. 

We  find  therefore  that  every  test  which  the  data  of  the  Epistle 
permit  us  to  apply,  leads  separately  and  in  combination  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  aim  of  Hebrews  is  to  establish  its  readers  who  are 
wavering  as  to  the  Christian  hope  both  by  reason  of  external 
persecution  and  of  the  intrusion  of  false  teaching  of  gnostic  char- 
acter; and  that  it  is  this  opposing  teaching  which  is  controverted 
in  the  doctrinal  establishment  of  faith  and  hope  in  Christ  the 
great  High  Priest,  and  in  the  succeeding  exhortations  to  faith, 
hope,  love  and  Church  fellowship. 

THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   OF  PETER 

In  the  group  of  CathoUc  Epistles,  we  shall  not  discuss  the  possi- 
bility of  references  to  errorists  in  James  or  III  John.  For  if  the 
early  date  and  general  Palestinian  destination  of  James  is  accepted, 
we  have  no  evidence  of  an  active  propaganda  of  gnostic  errorists 
in  the  churches  of  that  district  in  the  period  of  45  to  50  a.  d.  If 
on  the  other  hand  it  is  dated  62  a.  d.,  in  James's  lifetime,  or  still 
later,  we  fail  to  find  any  allusions  to  Jewish  gnostics  asserted  by 
Pfleiderer,  Urchristm.  II,  p.  546,  and  Weinel,  p.  435,  in  the  practical 
appHcations  of  chaps.  2-5  of  the  reUgious  principles  in  chaps.  1-2 
governing  the  training  and  disciphne  of  faith  amid  trials,  1,  3;  cp. 
Acts  14,  22  and  I  Thess.  3,  2-4.  We  also  pass  over  III  John,  as  it 
is  still  debated  whether  the  opposition  of  Diotrephes  was  '  ecclesi- 
astical or  doctrinal';  and  even  if  it  were  on  doctrinal  grounds  or 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  321 

was  based  on  refusal  to  admit  brethren  who  would  attack  intruding 
errorists,  we  should  still  have  to  find  the  polemic  against  them  in 
the  Second  Epistle.  There  is  of  course  no  question  of  a  polemic 
against  errorists  in  I  and  II  John,  Jude  and  II  Peter.  But  with 
few  exceptions,  the  remaining  Catholic  Epistle  I  Peter  is  held  to 
contain  no  allusion  to  them.  We  believe,  however,  that  such  a 
possibility  merits  a  further  consideration. 

The  First  Epistle  of  St.  Peter  is  addressed  to  Christians  in  four 
provinces  of  Asia  Minor  at  a  date  variously  placed  from  62  a.  d. 
onwards.  Since  we  have  concluded  that  at  least  in  the  Province 
of  Asia,  a  gnostic  movement  was  active  at  the  beginning  of  this 
period,  and  since  its  activity  there,  in  view  of  the  Johannine- 
writings,  is  recognized  at  the  later  dates  assigned  to  the  Epistle,  the 
question  arises  whether  this  Epistle  contains  any  reference  to 
gnostic  errors.  If  no  such  allusions  are  made  in  it,  it  would  not 
contravene  our  previous  conclusion  as  to  the  early  emergence  of  the 
movement.  For  if  it  were  not  extended  throughout  the  whole 
district  addressed,  the  writer  might  decide  that  it  was  not  necessary 
to  refer  in  such  a  circular  letter,  to  a  special  local  danger.  And  it 
is  also  obvious  that  the  Letter  might  have  had  a  special  occasion 
and  aim,  which  did  not  call  for  reference  to  this  definite  subject. 
Whether,  however,  the  movement  is  alluded  to,  must  be  de- 
termined by  a  consideration  of  the  aim  and  contents  of  the  Epistle. 

On  the  usual  view  it  is  written  on  occasion  of  persecutions,  to 
estabhsh  the  readers  in  the  patience  of  Christian  hope,  and  to 
exhort  them  to  loyalty,  strict  morality  and  peaceableness  in  order 
to  ward  off  suspicion  and  attack.  Such  a  construction  is  justified 
by  portions  of  the  contents,  which  call  for  no  reference  to  internal 
doctrinal  errors;  and  accordingly  no  such  allusions  are  ordinarily 
recognized.  But  the  data  of  the  Epistle  point  to  the  need  of  a 
construction  of  its  purpose  along  this  additional  line.  For  both  the 
stated  aim  of  the  Apostle  and  the  contents  in  their  entirety  show 
that  the  writer  has  in  mind  not  only  the  danger  of  an  external 
fiery  trial,  but  also  the  accompanying  strain  of  internal  attacks. 
While  encouragement  in  regard  to  the  manifold  trials  is  given 
throughout  the  Epistle,  yet  this  encouragement  is  interwoven 
with  doctrinal  establishment.  Further,  the  concluding  statement 
that  the  purpose  of  writing,  5,  12,  is  to  exhort  and  testify  that 
*this  is  the  true  grace  of  God:  stand  ye  fast  therein,'  shows  that 


322    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  Letter  along  with  its  encouragement  amid  persecution,  is  also 
a  vindication  of  a  doctrinal  position.  Upon  reviewing  the  struc- 
ture, this  combined  character  can  be  recognized.  We  find  not  only 
that  doctrinal  statements  are  made  in  direct  support  of  the  exhor- 
tations to  patience  and  moral  behavior  under  trials,  but  also  that 
these  statements  are  further  frequently  developed  into  more  funda- 
mental doctrinal  affirmations,  testifying  to  the  true  grace  of  God. 
The  occasion  of  these  additions  could  conceivably  be  the  vindica- 
tion of  this  true  grace  of  God  against  perversions  of  it.  This  con- 
jecture would,  moreover,  increase  in  probability,  if  the  assumed 
references  to  perversions  were  found  to  combine  into  a  definite 
form  of  opposition,  such  for  example  as  we  have  already  found  in 
the  Pauline  Epistles. 

This  Pastoral  to  widely  scattered  churches  develops  the  funda- 
mental  topics   of  primitive  instruction   and   current   Apostolic 
teaching,  in  connection  with  the  situation  of  the  readers :  faith  and 
hope  amid  persecution;  and  emphasis  on  Christian  morality  and 
Church  fellowship.    Our  present  interest  is  to  notice  whether  in  the 
treatment  of  these  topics,  gnostic  perversions  of  them  are  assumed. 
The  most  distinct  gnostic  error  is  its  perversion  of  Christian 
eschatology:  the  Parousia,  general  resurrection  and  judgment. 
It  is  therefore  at  once  significant  that  the  writer's  emphasis  on  this 
topic  is  so  prominent  that  Peter  has  on  this  account  received 
the  title  of  the  Apostle  of  hope.'*^   If  the  sole  occasion  of  writing  was 
external  danger,  it  was  directly  met  in  the  closing  main  division, 
4,  12-19,  by  establishment  in  the  patience  of  hope  along  the  lines 
common  in  New  Testament  writings:  as  ye  are  partakers  of 
Christ's  sufferings,  rejoice;  that  at  the  revelation  of  his  glory  also 
ye  may  rejoice  with  exceeding  joy.   In  addition  to  this,  however,  we 
have  an  opening  eschatological  section,  1,  3-12,  in  the  doxology  for 
regeneration  to  a  living  hope.    There  too  the  hope  of  salvation  is 
the  basis  of  rejoicing  amid  manifold  temptations.    But  the  greater 
part  of  the  section  is  for  the  doctrinal  establishment  of  this  basis 
of  hope  itself.    It  rests  on  the  personal  experience  of  regeneration 
by  the  Father,  on  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead. 
It  is  the  hope  of  a  salvation  not  yet  perfected;  of  an  inheritance 
reserved  in  heaven ;  of  a  salvation  ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last 
time  at  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.   This  hope  of  salvation  rests, 
*'  Cp.  B.  Weifls,  Der  Peiriniache  Lehrbegriff,  pp.  25-98. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  323 

further,  on  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment prophets  concerning  the  sufferings  and  glories  of  the  Christ, 
and  on  the  ApostoUc  preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Holy  Spirit. 
In  contrast  to  any  view  of  angeUc  mediation,  angels  desire  irapa- 
Kv\l/aL,  to  bend  over  and  look  into  these  things. 

The  writer's  interest  in  doctrinal  estabhshment  of  the  escha- 
tology  is  seen  also  in  the  appUcation  of  the  doxology :  they  are  to 
gird  up  the  loins  of  their  intellect,  and  to  set  their  hope  perfectly  on 
the  grace  that  is  to  be  brought  unto  them  at  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  And  the  more  definite  appUcation  of  the  section  in  vs.  14, 
is  again  not  to  endurance  of  trials  as  in  4,  12  ff.,  but  to  Christian 
morahty  inspired  by  this  hope. 

The  fact  that  the  main  features  of  this  opening  section  are  em- 
phatic affirmations  of  positions  opposed  to  gnostic  errors,  may  be 
considered  accidental,  or  as  simply  showing  the  Apostle's  interest 
in  the  topic  of  hope  expressed  in  terms  of  current  teaching.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  when  these  features  are  viewed  in  their  definite 
structure,  in  their  connection  with  the  readers'  situation  and  with 
the  writer's  expressed  aim,  5, 12,  the  probability  that  they  are  in- 
tended to  fortify  patience  in  trials  which  is  in  danger  of  being 
weakened  by  denials  of  the  Christian  hope,  is  strengthened  by  the 
consideration  that  this  first  section  would  in  fact  serve  to  meet 
directly  these  specific  denials. 

Turning  to  matters  of  faith,  the  basis  of  hope,  we  again  notice 
passages  which  are  not  directly  related  to  encouragement  in  trials, 
but  to  some  need  of  establishment  in  'the  true  grace  of  God.' 
Besides  the  positive  statement,  1, 11  f.,  that  the  Apostolic  Gospel 
rests  on  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  is  delivered  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  have  the  assurance,  1,  23  f., 
that  it  is  an  incorruptible  regenerating  seed,  the  eternally  abiding 
word  of  the  living  God,  and  that  the  new  born  grow  unto  salvation 
by  reception  of  this  \oyiK6v  a86\ov  ydXa :  the  milk,  without  decep- 
tion, offered  to  them  in  this  word.  The  immediate  application  of 
this  passage,  1,  22-2,  1  ff.,  is,  again,  not  to  support  of  external  trials 
but  to  avoidance  of  immorality  in  brotherly  relations.  The  em- 
phasis on  this  divine  basis  of  faith  and  hope  would  of  course  tend 
to  the  establishment  of  both;  but  the  concrete  references  to  those 
who  preached  the  Gospel  in  the  Holy  Spirit  and  to  their  Gospel  as 
the  word  of  God,  imply  also  the  need  of  estabUshing  the  Apostolic 


324    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Gospel  against  some  claim  of  its  insufficiency  in  comparison  with 
a  higher  conamunication  by  individuals  with  superior  prophetic 
gifts  of  gnosis  and  revelation. 

The  references  to  christology  point  in  the  same  direction. 
Christ's  redemptive  death,  1,  18  f.,  is  presented  as  a  motive  for 
holiness;  but  with  a  specific  development.  It  is  a  redemption  by 
the  blood  of  Christ  as  of  a  lamb  without  spot,  even  of  the  heavenly 
Christ  foreknown  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  and  mani- 
fested at  the  end  of  the  times,  cp.  Rom.  16,  25.  His  real  sufferings, 
though  he  was  sinless,  are  recalled,  2,  21  f.,  as  an  example  for 
suffering  slaves.  And  here  too,  vs.  24,  is  added  an  emphatic  state- 
ment of  his  death  as  redemptive:  who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in 
his  body  on  the  tree,  that  we  having  died  imto  sins  might  hve  unto 
righteousness.  The  statement  is  parallel  to  Paul's  rebuttal  of 
gnostic  teaching  and  libertinism  in  Rom.  6,  3-11  ff.  In  3,  13-4,  6 
the  suffering  of  Christ  the  righteous  is  once  more  the  basis  of  ex- 
hortation to  holy  living  by  those  suffering  for  righteousness'  sake. 
And  again  an  additional  doctrinal  interest  emerges  in  the  specific 
references  to  his  suffering  in  the  flesh;  to  his  being  put  to  death  in 
the  flesh,  but  made  alive  in  the  spirit,  in  which  he  preached  to  the 
spirits  in  prison;  to  the  resurrection  of  this  dead  Christ,  who  is 
now  on  God's  right  hand;  and  further  to  angels,  authorities  and 
powers  made  subject  to  him  as  their  Lord. 

These  statements  of  the  manifestation  of  the  preexistent  Christ 
as  suffering  in  his  body  of  flesh  for  sins,  rising  from  the  dead  to 
God's  throne,  supreme  over  angels,  together  with  the  references  to 
flesh  and  spirit  and  to  Christ's  approaching  apocalypse  in  glory, 
form  in  fact  a  definite  antignostic  christology.  They  are  not, 
in  their  details,  directly  called  for  by  the  sole  occasion  of  the 
readers'  need  of  support  in  trials,  and  of  prompting  to  holy  Uving  in 
order  to  parry  accusations.  They  do,  however,  estabUsh  them  in 
the  true  grace  of  God,  which  the  Apostle  states  is  his  object  in  en- 
couraging them  in  their  crisis  of  fiery  trial.  In  these  matters 
therefore  of  fundamental  faith,  as  before  in  the  subject  of  the 
Christian  hope,  the  probability  appears  anew  that  internal  dangers 
from  false  teaching  are  met  by  the  specific  doctrinal  affirmations 
of  the  Epistle. 

We  shall  find  the  same  indications  of  a  reference  both  to  ex- 
ternal and  internal  dangers  in  the  passages  concerning  the  Chri*- 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  325 

tian  moral  life  of  love.  To  the  exhortations  to  morality  is  added, 
as  before,  teaching  pointing  to  doctrinal  occasions  of  possible 
moral  indifference.  It  is  teaching  concerned  with  the  funda- 
mental motives  and  inspirations  to  holy  living.  Preceding  the 
main  section,  2,  11  ff.,  on  the  need  of  good  works  with  which  to 
silence  accusations,  the  section  1,  13-2,  3  exhorts  to  holiness  in  all 
manner  of  living  on  the  basis  of  the  antecedent  development  of 
Christian  hope,  1,  3-12,  as  the  invigoration  of  moral  obedience;  and 
it  adds  the  motive  of  moral  responsibility  for  the  blessing  of  re- 
demption from  former  sins  by  the  death  and  resurrection  of  the 
heavenly  Christ.  The  Apostle  proceeds  in  1,  22  to  exhort  to 
unfeigned  brotherly  love,  and  in  2,  1  ff.  against  sins  in  contrast  to 
it,  by  the  motive  of  their  regeneration  upon  obedience  to  the 
truth:  the  word  of  God  as  preached  to  them  in  the  Apostolic 
Gospel.  In  3,  18  ff.  the  means  of  death  to  the  lusts  of  men,  and  of 
life  in  the  flesh  according  to  the  will  of  God,  is  in  vss.  21  f.  as  in 
2,  24  union  with  the  dead  and  risen  Christ.  Certainly  these  doc- 
trines are  the  bases  and  inspirations  of  Christian  morality  in  any 
circumstances.  But  it  is  significant  that  here  they  all  are  em- 
phasized, and  that  they  are  doctrines  directly  contradicting 
gnostic  teachings  which  in  the  earher  Epistles  are  opposed  as 
destroying  the  foundations  of  morality. 

Moreover,  the  discussion  of  the  moral  duty  of  Christians  in  the 
State  and  in  the  household  as  slave,  wife  and  husband,  which  as 
elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament  is  based  on  the  initial  instruction, 
reflects  the  exposure  of  the  readers  to  the  influence  of  gnostic 
teaching  of  emancipation.  Its  boast  of  individual  freedom  by  the 
possession  of  the  Spirit  would  tend,  as  was  noticed  in  previous 
Epistles,  to  affect  not  only  the  duty  of  submission  to  the  author- 
ities and  ordinances  of  the  State,  but  would  also  especially  rouse 
up  the  spirit  of  unrest  among  slaves  and  excite  the  women  to 
assert  their  independence  in  the  home  and  in  the  social  life.  The 
section  2,  13-3,  8  assumes  and  meets  such  a  situation.  Loyalty  to 
the  State  is  urged  and  is  specifically  coupled  with  the  warning  of 
2,  16:  as  free  and  not  having  your  freedom  for  a  cloak  of  wicked- 
ness. Slaves  are  bidden  to  submit  under  any  circumstances  of 
injustice.  The  length  of  the  exhortation  to  them,  greater  here  than 
elsewhere  in  the  Epistles,  points  to  their  special  danger  in  this 
crisis,  which  would  be  heightened  by  any  manifestation  of  the 


326    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

perversion  of  the  Christian  liberty  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
verses.  The  motive  for  submission  is  here  the  example  of  the 
suffering  Christ,  and  the  additional  development  of  the  redemp- 
tive efficacy  of  his  sufferings  and  death,  which  gnostic  teachers 
denied. 

The  call  to  women  to  obedience  to  their  own  husbands,  to 
sobriety  in  dress,  to  the  incorruptness  of  a  meek  and  riavxt-os 
spirit,  assumes  Uke  I  Tim.  2,  9  and  parallels,  the  influence  of  an 
opposing  spirit  of  false  emancipation.  Due  subordination  within 
the  home,  the  Apostle  concludes,  does  not  involve  contradiction 
of  woman's  dignity  and  Christian  liberty,  since  they  are  not  to 
fear  with  any  terror.  And  the  accompanying  injunction  to  hus- 
bands, 3,  7,  concerning  the  maintenance  of  marriage  relations,  re- 
calls by  its  special  terms  the  same  opposing  teaching  as  in  I  Thess. 
4,   I   Cor.   7,   Hbws.    13,   disparaging  the  marriage  institution. 

If  there  was  then  in  the  Asian  churches  an  internal  danger  from 
gnostic  teaching,  it  would  appear  not  only  as  threatening  faith, 
hope  and  the  morality  of  Christian  love,  but  also  as  an  insubordi- 
nate and  divisive  spirit  in  the  corporate  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
This  fellowship  of  the  Church  we  meet  as  the  concluding  topic  of 
each  of  the  three  main  divisions  of  the  Epistle.  In  the  last  of  these, 
the  local  ministry  is  addressed,  5,  Iff.,  in  direct  connection  with  the 
fiery  trial.  In  it  their  pastoral  work  is  to  be  inspired  with  the 
recollection  of  Christ's  suffering  and  with  the  hope  of  glory.  Their 
pastoral  spirit,  to  adopt  the  terms  of  B.  Weiss  and  Chase,  is  not  to 
be  that  of  slaves,  hirelings  or  tyrants.  There  is,  however,  no  refer- 
ence, even  in  the  last  two  expressions,  to  church  officers  of  a  con- 
trary spirit.  The  close  parallels  in  I  Cor.  9,  Acts  20,  and  the  gospel 
commands,  reveal  these  directions  as  part  of  primitive  instructions 
concerning  Church  order,  being  gradually  formulated.  The  only 
possible  allusion  in  this  passage  to  an  element  of  insubordination  to 
church  rule,  is  the  call  to  humility  within  the  Church,  vs.  5,  which 
has  no  apparent  relation  to  the  dangers  from  without. 

The  first  main  division  concludes  the  positive  affirmations  con- 
cerning eschatology,  morality  and  redemption  by  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Christ,  with  the  subject  of  Church  fellowship  in 
1,  22-2,  10.  This  passage,  however,  is  not  related  to  present  suffer- 
ings, but  to  'the  true  grace  of  God,'  cp.  2,  10:  the  readers  who 
formerly  were  no  people,  are  now  the  people  of  God;  they  had  not 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  327 

obtained  mercy,  but  now  have  obtained  mercy.  It  is  a  grace  in 
which  they  are  to  stand;  by  which  they  have  become  living  stones 
in  a  spiritual  house  of  which  Christ  is  the  head  comer  stone;  an 
elect  race,  a  holy  royal  priesthood  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices 
through  Jesus  Christ!  These  detailed  affirmations,  2,  4-10,  of  the 
corporate  character  of  their  Christian  life,  and  this  interest  in  the 
unity  and  spiritual  functions  of  the  Church,  would  of  itself  suggest 
a  need  of  controverting  some  divisive  influence  subversive  of  the 
Church's  fellowship.  And  in  fact  we  find  this  teaching  concerning 
the  Church  to  have  been  given  to  support  the  exhortation  to  mu- 
tual fervent  love,  since  they  have  purified  their  souls  in  obedience 
to  the  truth,  to  the  word  of  God  preached  to  them  in  the  Apostolic 
Gospel,  unto  unfeigned  love  of  the  brethren.  It  may  well  be  that 
the  frequent  collocation  in  the  Epistles  of  brotherly  love  and 
matters  of  Church  order,  is  due  to  their  connection  in  the  primitive 
instruction.  But  their  selection  for  emphasis  in  this  Epistle  to 
support  Christians  in  a  crisis  of  trial,  can  be  most  readily  under- 
stood as  intended  to  guard  them  against  an  internal  danger  of 
false  teaching  which  in  addition  to  dissolving  the  Christian  faith 
and  hope  steeUng  them  to  endurance,  was  an  element  disrupting 
the  unity  of  love,  sympathy  and  brotherhood  that  would  as  in 
Philippians  1,  28,  enable  them  with  one  spirit  and  one  soul  not  only 
to  believe  on  Christ  but  also  to  suffer  on  his  behalf. 

The  same  principle  of  selection  may  likewise  control  the  section 
relating  to  inner  Church  life  and  worship,  which  closes  the  second 
main  division,  4,  7  ff.  Its  reaffirmation  against  any  denials  that 
the  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand,  is  to  lead  the  readers  to  be  sober 
unto  prayers;  and  also,  in  contrast  to  any  separatist  influence,  to 
mutual  fervent  love  and  to  welcome  of  Christian  strangers,  with- 
out murmuring.  The  pneumatics,  definitely,  are  not  to  use  their 
charismatic  gifts  of  utterance  or  ministry  as  exclusive  and  vaunted 
individual  endowments,  but  as  stewards  in  God's  household,  of  his 
manifold  grace. 

We  thus  find  in  the  Epistle  indications  of  an  aim  to  establish 
readers  exposed  both  to  an  outer  fiery  trial  and  to  an  internal 
danger  perverting  the  true  grace  of  God.  Hence  the  encourage- 
ment amidst  trials  rests  upon  reemphasis  on  the  Christian  hope 
based  on  faith,  as  the  inspiration  to  a  moral  life  of  love  in  Christian 
fellowship;  and  this  reemphasis  is  in  opposition  to  gnostic  teaching 


328    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

subverting  these  fundamentals.  This  primary  interest  in  estab- 
lishing his  readers  in  order  to  his  encouragement  of  them,  accounts 
for  the  Apostle's  method  of  positive  statement  of  the  true  Christian 
principles,  rather  than  of  direct  discussion  of  the  opposing  system. 
We  have,  however,  seen  that  practically  all  the  characteristic 
features  and  results  of  gnostic  teaching  in  the  New  Testament  age, 
are  in  fact  rebutted  in  the  Epistle;  and  they  can  therefore  reason- 
ably be  assumed  to  have  been  in  the  writer's  view.  While  there  is 
no  special  reference  to  a  false  teaching  concerning  the  incarnation, 
yet  the  repeated  emphasis  on  the  redemptive  death  of  the  heavenly 
Christ,  cp.  1,  19  f.,  guards  against  a  docetic  christology.  And 
gnosis  as  the  principle  of  the  system  may,  apart  from  possible 
verbal  allusions,  be  assumed  to  be  the  basis  both  of  the  false 
emancipation  from  the  authority  of  the  Apostolic  teaching,  the 
moral  rule  and  social  order,  and  also  of  the  divisive* spirit;  all  of 
which  we  have  found  to  be  opposed  throughout  the  Epistle. 

SECOND  PETER  AND  JUDE 

The  references  to  gnosticism  in  I  Peter  could  be  still  more 
definitely  recognized  if  II  Peter  were  accepted  as  genuine.  In  it 
there  is  no  doubt  of  such  reference.  If  then  it  was  the  work  of 
the  Apostle,  he  shows  full  acquaintance  with  the  movement  and  an 
intense  interest  in  opposing  it.  He  would  therefore  have  been 
animated  by  the  same  interest  when  writing  the  first  Epistle  to  the 
Asian  district,  where  we  have  previously  found  the  movement  to 
be  active. 

The  contrast  in  the  method  of  referring  to  it  and  of  opposing  it 
in  the  two  Epistles  might  then  be  explained,  as  by  those  main- 
taining the  genuineness  of  both,  by  various  theories  of  different 
destinations:  the  first  Epistle  to  Gentile  converts  in  Asia  Minor,  the 
second  to  Jewish  Christians  in  Palestine  and  neighboring  districts, 
so  Zahn;  or  to  churches  which  in  the  view  of  B.  Weiss  have  changed 
in  the  interval  of  a  decennium  to  a  predominantly  Gentile  Christian 
character;  or  which,  with  Bigg,  are  now  troubled  by  the  intrusion  of 
errorists  from  Corinth;  or  the  first  Epistle  being  an  encyclical 
like  Ephesians  might  be  viewed  as  characterized  by  general 
references  to  a  situation  common  in  churches  in  the  four  provinces, 
while  the  second,  like  Colossians,  as  interested  in  a  danger  looming 
in  a  special  district. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  329 

In  view,  however,  of  current  critical  denials  of  the  genuineness  of 
II  Peter  even  by  many  leading  conservatives,  we  shall  consider  its 
references  to  errorists  apart  from  the  question  of  its  relationship 
to  I  Peter,  and  on  the  largely  accepted  view  of  its  dependence  on 
Jude.  It  will  suffice  for  the  present  purpose  to  construct  the  main 
features  of  the  system  combatted  in  these  Epistles.  We  proceed  on 
the  theory  that  II  Peter  as  a  whole  and  not  merely  in  its  second 
chapter  is  constructed  on  the  basis  of  Jude,  as  may  be  concluded 
from  Mayor's  comparisons,  pp.  i-xvii,  and  the  texts  in  parallel, 
pp.  1-15. '^^  As  Salmon,  Introduction,  p.  477,  was  inclined  to  find 
in  Jude  '  heads  of  topics  enlarged  on,  either  in  a  larger  document  or 
by  the  Apostle  himself  in  viva  voce  addresses,'  so  we  may  notice  in 
II  Pet.  such  enlargements  in  chaps.  1  and  3  of  the  topics  of  true 
gnosis,  the  ApostoUc  faith  and  the  Parousia.  We  therefore  use 
Jude  as  the  basis  of  the  description  of  the  errorists  in  the  two 
Epistles,  and  compare  II  Pet.  as  developing  and  applying  Jude's 
description.'*^ 

The  errorists  are  still  within  the  Church.  Their  methods, 
characteristics  and  teachings  are  well  known  to  the  writers;  al- 
though from  the  urgency  of  the  denunciations  and  warnings  in 
Jude  it  has  been  suggested  that  their  activity  in  the  churches 
addressed  by  him,  has  but  recently  begun.  ^°  They  have '  intruded ' ; 
and  an  outstanding  mark  of  their  propaganda  is  their  separatist 
spirit.  This  is  probably  alluded  to  in  the  description,  vs.  3,  of 
Christianity  as  our  common  salvation,  and  possibly  in  the  state- 
ment, II  Pet.  1,  1,  of  faith  as  iaoTiixov,  with  Field  'equally  privi- 
leged.' Since  there  is  no  suggestion  in  the  Epistle  of  inequality  of 
privilege  in  the  faith  of  Gentile  and  Jewish  converts  or  in  that  of 
the  Apostles  and  their  converts,  the  remaining  alternative  may  be 
that  the  expression  is  an  allusion  to  the  claim  of  the  intruders  to 
special  spiritual  honors.  They  are  in  any  case  those  who  cause 
separations,  Jude  19,  and  in  II  Pet.  2,  1,  privily  bring  in  destructive 

<8  J.  B.  Mayor,  Evistk  oj  St.  Jude  and  the  Second  Epistle  of  St.  Peter,  1907. 

*'  E.  I.  Robson,  Studies  in  the  Second  Ejyistle  of  St.  Peter,  1915,  advocates 
the  theory  of  fragmentary  documents  attributed  to  Peter,  first  used  by  Jude 
and  then  by  an  Alexandrian  redactor,  130  a.  d.,  who  in  II  Pet.  adds  to  Jude 
fragmentary  material  welded  together  by  his  editorial  connections,  as  in- 
dicated in  special  type  in  a  reprint  of  the  text,  pp.  9-14. 

'^H.  Werdennann,  Die  Irrlehrer  des  Judas-und  2.  Petrusbriefes,  1913, 
p.  122. 


330    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

divisions,  alpiaeis  aircdXelas.  Naturally  these  become  manifest 
at  the  Christian  assemblies  for  the  Agapae  and  the  associated 
Eucharist.  And  in  fact  the  most  direct  description  of  their  activity 
is  given  in  connection  with  their  relation  to  it  in  Jude  12  ff .,  and  the 
parallel  II  Pet.  2,  13  ff. 

While  the  Agapse  is  an  expression  and  means  of  furthering 
Christian  fellowship  and  unity,  the  intruders  are  in  Jude  'hidden 
rocks,'  with  Mayor;  and  as  such,  sources  of  danger  and  division, 
and  centers  of  agitation.  Or  if  with  Bigg  o-TrtXdSes  is  equivalent  to 
(TirtXot  Kal  fjLcofxoL,  the  spots  of  II  Pet.,  there  is  expressed  the  same 
idea  of  marring  and  contaminating  the  peace  and  unity  of  the 
Christian  service  and  life.  As  in  I  Cor.  11,  18,  the  (rxL<^ fiara  are 
connected  in  vss.  27  ff.  with  participating  in  the  Agapae  and 
Eucharist  unworthily  and  without  discriminating  the  body,  so 
those  who  cause  separations  'feed  without  fear,'  or  in  Bigg's  render- 
ing of  (Tvvev(t)xovixevoi,  'Carouse  together  by  themselves.'  Jude's 
meaning  of  aipo^ojs  is  indicated  by  the  expression  in  II  Pet.  2,  13: 
'counting  our  sober  dayUght  joy  (the  Agapae)  mere  vulgar  pleas- 
ure,' in  the  translation  proposed  by  Bigg.  Thus  revelling  they  are 
spots  and  blemishes  when  'feasting  with  you  in  their  Agapae.'  If 
the  reading  dTrdrats  is  adopted,  we  may  have  here  the  writer's 
repudiation  of  the  name  of  Agapae  for  their  behavior  and  can 
render  with  Mayor  after  Hofmann  'revelUng  in  their  deceits,  while  jj 
feeding  with  you.'^^  Their  divisive  influences  in  the  eucharistic 
worship  as  the  service  of  unity  is  further  expressed  in  'shepherding 
themselves.'  This  is  not  to  be  restricted  as  by  Bigg  to  their 
defiance  of  church  rulers,  but  in  connection  with  the  famihar  New  '- 
Testament  use  of  iroLfMalvo}  it  refers  to  their  rejection  of  the  general 
pastoral  ministry  of  the  Church  exercised  in  this  context  in  the 
instruction,  worship  and  disciphne  in  the  Agapse-Eucharist,  as  in 
I  Thess.  5,  12  ff.,  and  the  Ignatian  Epistles.  It  points  thus  to  their 
withdrawal  from  the  main  group  of  worshippers;  eating  apart  with 
their  followers  and  expounding  to  them  their  teachings. 

Jude's  opening  reference  to  them  in  vs.  4,  is  in  denunciation  of 
their  false  teachings;  and  these  it  would  seem  were  imparted  in  the 

•^  Werdermann,  p.  83  adopts  (iiTrdratJ,  but  finds  in  avpevo)XOVfJiivoi,  a 
reference  to  feeding  in  the  Agapaj,  and  regards  favorably  Ewald's  conjecture 
of  a  word-play  in  A'ydTrat — aTraTat. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  331 

schisms  at  the  Agapae,  vs.  12  f.^^  ^he  waterless  clouds  as  inter- 
preted in  II  Pet.  2, 18,  describe  their  boasts  and  promises  of  superior 
spiritual  gifts,  especially  of  freedom.  These,  however,  are  not 
fulfilled,  but  lead  to  renewed  slavery,  to  corruption  in  lusts,  as  was 
already  taught  in  Paul's  warnings  against  the  errorists  in  Rom.  6, 
16  ff.  As  wind-driven  clouds,  cp.  Ephes.  4, 14;  II  Pet.  2, 14;  Mtw.  7, 
27,  their  teaching  is  destructive  of  establishment  in  faith,  of  growth 
and  upbuilding.  As  fruitless  autumn  trees,  their  teaching  issues  in 
no  fruit  of  the  promised  perfection,  but  in  uprooting  and  death, 
cp.  Mtw.  7,  19;  II  Pet.  1,  8.  The  figure  of  the  destroying  flood  and 
of  being  tossed  to  and  fro  by  the  waves  of  error,  is  applied  in 
Jude  to  the  intruders  as  'wild  waves  of  the  sea  foaming  up  their 
own  shames '  in  their  libertinistic  teaching.  In  II  Pet.  2, 14,  it  seems 
that  this  immorality  of  teachers  with  eyes  full  of  adultery  and  that 
cannot  cease  from  sin,  is  closely  connected  with  practices  at  or 
issuing  from  the  Agapae. ^^  Finally  in  their  antinomian  emancipa- 
tion they  are,  in  contrast  to  '  the  heavenly  luminaries  which  trans- 
gress not  against  their  appointed  order,*  wandering  stars  dashing 
off  as  meteors  into  the  blackness  of  darkness. 

In  the  more  generalizing  references  these  manifestations  of  the 
activity  of  the  innovators  are  seen  to  be  based  on  boasts  of  gnosis 
as  their  peculiar  possession  of  the  Spirit  and,  therefore,  of  free- 
dom of  the  Spirit  from  all  forms  of  external  authority.  In  Jude 
those  who  separate  themselves  as  being  the  pneimiatics  in  con- 
trast to  ordinary  Christians,  who  are  viewed  by  them  as  |Jmerely 
psychic,  cp.  I  Cor.  2,  14  ff.,  are  denounced  as  not  possessing  the 
Spirit.^^  And,  therefore,  in  v.  10  they  have  'no  knowledge' 
of  that  of  which  they  speak  evil,  but  only  a  psychic  knowledge  like 
the  beasts  without  reason;  and  they  even  pervert  this  psychic 
instinct  to  their  destruction.    In  the  parallel,  II  Pet.  2,  12,  their 

^2  Von  Soden:  The  four  comparisons,  whose  origin  from  Enoch,  2-5,  4  is 
made  very  probable  by  Spitta's  proofs,  characterize  successively  the  insta- 
biUty,  unfruitfulness,  impurity  and  the  certain  doom  of  these  persons. 

"Werdennann,  p.  83:  They  probably  arranged  for  special  meetings  in 
which  they  promised  a  more  definite  introduction  into  their  secret  teachings. 
In  these  meetings  individuals  could  participate  upon  payment;  and  not  im- 
possibly, indeed  according  to  the  statements  of  the  Epistles  it  is  even  certain, 
they  combined  orgies  with  the  meetings,  which  proceeded  to  acts  of  lewdness. 

**  Windisch  notes  that  the  psychics  do  not  here  represent  an  intermediate 
class,  as  among  the  Valentinians,  but  the  contrast  to  the  pneumatics. 


332    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

railing  is  the  result  of  their  lack  of  gnosis,  6,yvoio};  and  again  they 
are  compared  to  beasts  without  reason,  bom  creatures  of  instinct 
for  sensual  gratification,  whose  destruction  they  will  share;  cp. 
also  I  Cor.  6,  12  ff.  and  Philippians  3,  19. 

These  compressed  allusions  in  Jude  to  false  gnosis  are  expanded 
in  II  Pet.  1,  3-11  concerning  true  gnosis,  and  are  again  summar- 
ized in  the  antithetic  conclusion,  3,  18,  concerning  growth  in 
grace  and  gnosis  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  as  well  as 
in  the  opening  salutation  that  grace  and  peace  may  be  multipUed 
in  epignosis  of  God  and  of  Jesus  our  Lord.  His  readers  already 
possess  all  gifts  that  pertain  to  life  and  godUness,  through  their 
epignosis  of  God  who  called  them.  Their  Christian  life  is  not  to 
be  idle  and  unfruitful,  but  to  abound  by  a  sevenfold  development 
of  their  faith  in  love,  vss.  5-8,  and  thereby  in  epignosis  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  passage  recalls  the  simitar  growth  and 
relations  of  moral  fruitfulness,  love  and  gnosis  in  PhiUppians  1, 
9  ff.;  Col.  1,  8  ff.  The  gnosis  of  the  errorists  despite  their  boasts 
of  visions  and  ecstasies  as  in  II  Cor.  12,  1  and  Col.  2,  18,  rests  on 
mere  dreams,  Jude  8,  evvTrvLaibfxevoi,.^^  In  a  somewhat  similar 
context,  II  Pet.  1,  9,  we  meet  with  the  retort  that  they  are  blind, 
closing  their  eyes  to  the  light.  Allied  with  boasts  of  gnosis  and 
revelation  is  their  pride,  arrogance,  daring  self-will,  and  great 
swelling  words  of  vanity  which  characterize  the  errorists  of  the 
earlier  Epistles,  and  the  same  greed  of  money,  loving  like  Balaam 
'the  hire  of  wrong  doing.'  II  Pet.  2,  19,  points  directly  to  their 
claim  of  liberty  as  the  basis  of  these  boasts.  It  emerges  in  both 
Epistles  as  independence  of  all  forms  of  external  control  of  their 
individualism. 

Their  superiority  to  the  ApostoUc  tradition  of  the  Gospel  is 
revealed  in  Jude's  need  to  call  his  readers  to  contend  earnestly 
for  the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints,  and  in  the  calls, 
II  Pet.  1,  12  f.;  3,  1  f.,  putting  the  readers  in  remembrance  of  the 

•»  Mofifatt,  Historical  N.  T.,  p.  595,  renders  this,  'men  of  sensual  imagina- 
tion,' who,  p.  589,  claim  to  possess  visions.  Similarly  in  his  IrUrodiuUion,  p.  355, 
it  h&a  the  force  of  false  prophets,  with  their  sensual  dreams,  p.  349.  Mayor, 
p.  33,  cites  the  LXX  passages  where  it  is  used  of  lying  dreams  of  false  prophete 
aa  contrasted  with  the  word  of  the  Lord.  On  p.  74  while  understanding  it 
to  mean  men  who  live  in  an  unreal  world,  he  yet  finds  possible  a  further 
allusion  to  II  Thess.  2,  7-11  'which  may  perhaps  refer  to  the  wild  dream« 
of  Gnostic  mythology.' 


i 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  333 

words  spoken  before  by  the  holy  prophets,  and  the  commandment 
of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  through  their  Apostles.  In  the  practical 
scope  of  Jude's  brief  and  compressed  Epistle  there  is  no  discussion 
of  the  doctrinal  bases  of  their  opposition  to  Apostolic  teaching. 
In  his  opening  description  of  them,  vs.  4,  he,  however,  summarizes 
it  as  a  denial  of '  our  only  Master  and  Lord,  Jesus  Christ.'  Mayor 
decides  for  the  other  rendering:  denying  God  and  Christ:  yet 
thinks  the  phrase  '  cannot  mean  less  than  that  they  put  forward 
[ideas  out  of  harmony  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  and 
of  the  Divine  Nature,'  p.  clxxv,  and  p.  27.  II  Pet.  2,  1,  adds  to 
this  their  denial  of  the  Master  that  bought  them.  This  would 
[point  to  their  rejection  of  his  redemptive  death,  as  in  the  earUer 
descriptions  of  them;  and  this  could  here  also  be  on  the  familiar 
duahstic  ground  of  their  docetic  denial  that  the  suffering  Jesus 
was  the  divine  Christ.  In  opposition  to  their  perversion  of  mes- 
sianic prophecy  alluded  to  in  1,  19-21,  which  was  constantly 
presented  in  support  of  the  teaching  of  a  suffering  Christ,  and 
to  their  cunningly  devised  hvOol  which  are  here  directly  related 
to  the  Parousia  of  Christ  and  might  also  be  connected  with  their 
denial  of  the  Lord  and  his  redemptive  death  in  the  succeeding 
statement,  2,  1,  the  reference  to  the  Transfiguration,  1,  16  ff., 
would  be  a  direct  refutation  of  their  christology.  It  occurred  in 
connection  with  the  first  annunciation  of  the  Passion.  In  the 
appearance  of  Moses  and  Elijah  speaking  with  the  transfigured 
Christ  concerning  his  exodus  which  he  was  to  fulfill  at  Jerusalem, 
we  have  the  word  of  prophecy  made  sure.  The  transfiguration 
was  besides  in  confirmation  of  his  own  inunediately  preceding 
announcement  of  his  Parousia  in  power  and  great  glory.  And  the 
divine  assurance,  'This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased,'  is  given  to  Jesus  while  still  in  his  Ufe  of  real  humanity; 
already  accepting  the  humiliation  of  his  Passion;  and  already,  be- 
fore the  resurrection,  revealed  in  glory  as  the  heavenly  Christ,  as 
the  incarnate  Son  of  God.  We  know  from  the  Pauline  Epistles  how 
even  the  Apostolic  christology  could  be  perverted  by  a  cunningly 
devised  docetic  gnostic  theory  of  the  resurrection  of  the  heavenly 
Christ.  But  all  forms  of  docetism,  denials  of  a  real  incarnation, 
redemptive  death,  resurrection  and  Parousia  of  the  heavenly 
Christ,  are  impossible  of  acceptance  by  those  who  have  received 
the  Apostolic  witness  of  Jesus  in  the  glory  of  his  transfiguration. 


334    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Jude,  again,  has  no  direct  statement  of  the  intruders'  denial 
of  the  Christian  hope  of  the  Parousia.  We  should  expect  this 
denial  as  being  a  common  feature  in  the  other  New  Testament 
descriptions  of  errorists  similar  to  those  denounced  in  Jude.  And 
we  may  find  intimations  of  it  in  the  countervailing  stress  upon 
the  hope  of  the  Parousia  in  the  opening  salutation,  in  the  central 
exhortation  and  in  the  concluding  doxology.  The  readers  are 
kept,  vs.  1,  unto  Jesus  Christ:  the  reference  being  to  the  recur- 
ring New  Testament  teaching  of  preservation  unto  the  coming  of 
the  Lord,  I  Pet.  1,  4  f.;  I  Thess.  5,  23;  I  Cor.  1,  7-9;  cp.  John  17,  11. 
In  the  exhortation,  vs.  21,  they  are  to  keep  themselves  in  the 
love  of  God  while  looking  for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
i.  e,y  'which  he  will  show  at  his  coming,'  unto  eternal  life.  The 
doxology,  vs.  24,  likewise  is  to  him  that  is  able  to  guard  them 
from  stumbUng  and  to  set  them  before  the  presence  of  his  glory. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  repeated  references  to  past  divine  judgments 
and  to  prophecies  of  judgment  to  come,  could  be  the  writer's  method 
of  rejoinder  to  those  who  along  with  their  impiety  and  inmioraUty 
denied  a  Parousia  and  world-judgment.^  They  are  further  de- 
scribed as  mockers,  vs.  18,  and  as  predicted  in  ApostoUc  teachings 
concerning  'the  last  time.'  And  with  Mayor  we  can  recognize 
the  subject  of  their  mocking  from  the  account  already  given  of 
them:  with  their  Hbertinism,  boast  of  enUghtenment,  contempt 
for  authority,  denial  of  God  and  Christ,  'they  would  naturally 
laugh  at  the  idea  of  a  judgment.' 

This  conjectural  construction  of  their  attitude  to  the  Last 
Things  is  supported  by  the  development  in  II  Peter  of  this  passage 
concerning  the  predicted  and  now  present  mocking,  Jude  18,  as 
mockery  of  the  Parousia,  chap.  3.  It  appears  here  as  a  challenge 
supported  by  the  delay  of  the  promised  coming;  and  besides  this 
popular  form,  as  an  argued  conclusion  from  the  unchanging  course 
of  the  created  world.  This  latter  objection  could  be  made  at  the  i 
earUest  preaching  of  the  Parousia.  It  is  already  met  and  repudi- 
ated in  Rom.  8,  18-25.  It  is  here  repelled  by  recalling  that  the 
unchanging  continuance  of  nature  is  disproved  by  the  Genesis 

••The  commentaries  illustrate  the  intruders'  walk  in  the  way  of  Cain 
from  the  Jerusalem  Targum,  Gen.  4,  7,  in  which  Cain  says:  There  is  no  judg- 
ment, no  judge,  no  coming  age,  no  reward  to  the  righteous,  no  vengeance 
upon  the  wicked. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  335 

teachings  that  once  the  world  was  not,  and  once  was  destroyed  in 
a  world  catastrophe  and  world  judgment,  as  now  is  predicted 
in  Christian  eschatology.  The  other  objection  from  the  death 
of  the  fathers,  vs.  4,  could  be  pressed  with  the  passing  of  the  first 
Christian  generation  from  60  a.  d.  onwards,  without  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  primitive  hope  of  the  Coming.  It  is  met  by  the  re- 
minder, vs.  8,  that  'measures  of  time  have  relation  to  man,  not 
to  God ' ;  and  also  by  the  assurance  that  the  delay  is  the  expression 
of  the  divine  long-suffering  in  the  hope  of  the  world's  repentance. 
The  discussion  closes  with  a  reiteration  of  the  primitive  eschatol- 
ogy, vss.  10  ff.,  and  with  this  as  an  inspiration  to  all  holy  living 
and  godliness. 

It  is  indeed  the  threatening  danger  to  Christian  moraUty  from 
the  intruders'  principles  and  practices,  which  is  naturally  a  prin- 
ciple if  not  the  central  interest  in  both  these  pastoral  Letters. 
Their  sexual  impurity  is  exposed  in  the  references  to  their  im- 
moral conduct;  and  in  all  the  various  allusions  it  is  seen  to  be  a 
Ubertinism  dehberately  practiced  on  the  principles  of  their  sys- 
tem of  error.  Jude's  initial  denunciation  of  their  Kcentiousness 
refers  to  it  as  a  perversion  of  grace,  and  links  it  with  their  denial 
of  the  faith  in  Christ.  II  Pet.  2,  18-22,  explains  that  this  perver- 
sion grows  out  of  a  boast  and  promise  of  freedom:  an  antinomian 
emancipation  issuing  in  a  slavery  to  lusts.  In  both  Epistles  their 
unnatural  sexual  vices  are  pointedly  connected  with  a  gnosis 
which  reduces  those  claiming  to  be  pneumatics  to,  or  beneath, 
the  level  of  unreasoning  psychic  beasts.  Their  separatist  spirit 
in  the  Agapae  and  in  their  own  private  meetings  is  likewise  the 
occasion  for  impure  influences  and  shameful  practices.  And  on 
the  probable  view  of  the  several  examples  and  predictions  of 
divine  judgments  as  antithetical  to  their  denial  of  a  world  judg- 
ment, the  sins  resulting  from  their  scoffing  at  it,  are  the  sexual 
sins  of  the  Jews  in  the  wilderness,  cp.  I  Cor.  10,  5-11,  of  the  angels 
of  Gen.  6,  and  of  Sodom.  The  method  of  counteracting  this  im- 
morality also  points  to  its  basis  in  their  false  teaching.  It  is  met 
by  exhortation  to  loyalty  to  Apostolic  conmiandment  and  tradi- 
tion ;  to  advance  in  true  gnosis  by  the  practice  of  Christian  moraUty 
and  piety;  by  the  warning  that  acceptance  of  the  false  doctrine 
of  emancipation  will  lead  to  a  last  state  worse  than  their  pre- 
Christian  immorahty;  and  by  the  warnings  from  Old  Testament 


336     APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

examples,  of  judgment  on  perversions  of  divine  grace  and  on  neg- 
lect of  predictions  of  judgment. 

The  claim  of  freedom  of  the  Spirit  and  of  gnosis  which  deter- 
mined their  independence  of  the  ApostoUc  faith,  hope  and  moral 
walk  in  love,  emerges  also  in  their  attitude  to  Church  order.  Be- 
sides its  manifestation  in  their  divisive  spirit  in  the  Agapae,  it  is 
expressed  also  in  the  spirit  of  Korah,  murmuring  and  complaining 
against  the  authority  of  the  Church  and  its  ministry,  Jude  11.16. 
Bigg  and  Chase  find  a  similar  reference  to  the  Church  rulers  in 
the  do^as  against  whom  the  intruders  rail,  Jude  8,  II  Peter  2,  10; 
and  Chase  supported  by  post-Reformation  expositors  regards 
KvpLdrris  as  expressing  the  abstract  principle  of  authority.  But 
the  combination  of  the  two  terms  and  their  connection  with  the 
passage  concerning  Michael,  from  the  Assumption  of  Moses,  is 
recognized  by  the  majority  of  conmientators  as  pointing  to  the 
intruders'  attitude  of  contempt  for  the  powers  of  the  invisible 
world.  Among  the  widely  divergent  interpretations  of  the  two 
objects  of  their  repudiation,  we  may  accept  the  more  usual  refer- 
ence of  KvpibTTjs  to  Jesus'  divine  lordship  as  in  vs.  4.  If,  next, 
with  von  Soden  and  others  we  understand  86^as  to  refer  to  holy 
angels,  we  are  able  to  eliminate  a  supposed  reference  to  the  er- 
rorists'  scornful  denial  of  being  influenced  by  evil  angels,  whose 
existence  or  power  they  deny;  or  to  their  possession  of  secret 
gnostic  formulae  enabling  them  to  rise  beyond  the  successive  ranks 
of  the  current  angeUc  hierarchy;  or  to  the  late,  Carpocratian  doc- 
trine of  supremacy  over  the  angeUc  makers  of  the  world,  Iren. 
Adv.  Hcer.,  1.25.  It,  however,  still  remains  uncertain,  in  view  of 
the  many  developments  of  the  current  angelology,  what  was  the 
special  character  of  their  contempt  for  the  angeUc  powers  as 
these  were  regarded  in  the  Church.  Among  the  several  sugges- 
tions offered  in  Mayor  and  Werdermann,  p.  30  ff.,  it  may  have 
been  antinomian  contempt  for  angels  as  mediating  the  giving  of 
the  Law,  whose  commandments  they  transgress  on  principle;  or 
in  connection  with  Jude's  quotation  from  Enoch  of  the  coming  of 
the  I^rd  with  his  myriads  of  holy  ones,  their  setting  aside  of 
the  Parousia  of  the  Lord  Jesus  with  the  glory  of  his  Father  an( 
of  the  holy  angels,  Luke  9,  26;  Mtw.  25,  31,  and  their  parallel 
It  may,  however,  be  possible  that  66f as  in  combination  here  wit 
Jesus'  KvpibTfjs,  refers  as  in  I  Pet.  1, 12,  to  the  glorification,  heav^ 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  337 

enly  ministry  and  the  coming  in  glory  of  the  incarnate  Lord,  which 
follow  his  redemptive  sufferings.  Yet  whatever  interpretation 
be  adopted,  there  is  no  question  that  their  denial  and  railing  rests 
on  their  boast  of  freedom  in  their  gift  of  gnosis. 

This  general  construction  of  the  characteristics  of  the  errorists 
in  their  independence  of  the  ApostoUc  faith,  their  rejection  of 
Christian  morals  and  hope,  their  divisive  spirit  in  the  Church 
fellowship  and  their  repudiation  of  its  order  and  ministry,  is  sup- 
ported by  the  summary  description  of  them  in  Jude  11  in  his  com- 
parison of  them  with  Cain,  Balaam  and  Korah.  Their  walk  in 
the  way  of  Cain  is  illustrated  in  the  current  conceptions  of  him  as 
reported  in  the  Philo  passages  cited  from  Siegfried  by  Windisch 
and  Mayor,  as  a  symbol  of  skepticism;  'sunk  in  the  world  of 
sense,  a  polemical  sophist,  spiritually  dead.*  This  would  express 
their  impious  opposition  to  God  and  divine  truth,  and  their  sensual 
immorality.  The  Targum  of  the  Cain  passage  already  cited  would 
likewise  point  to  their  denial  of  the  final  judgment.  In  Heb.  11,  4, 
he  is  contrasted  with  Abel,  whose  faith  and  righteousness  are 
declared,  and  whose  life  and  speaking  after  death  is  in  a  singular 
contrast  to  Cain's  denial  of  a  future  Ufe,  according  to  the  Targum. 
Similarly  in  I  John  3, 12,  Cain  was  of  the  evil  one;  his  works  are 
evil;  and  in  vs.  11  in  antithesis  to  the  Church's  fellowship  in 
brotherly  love,  he  slew  his  brother.  The  definite  method  of  prop- 
aganda of  those  who  thus  walk  in  the  way  of  Cain  is  denounced 
as  a  giving  themselves  to  the  error  of  Balaam.  For  like  him  they 
were  corrupted  to  become  false  prophets  for  gain,  to  lead  God's 
people  to  mingle  with  idolatry,  and  to  indulge  in  fornication.  As 
in  I  Cor.  10,  5-11,  the  description  is  completed  with  the  compari- 
son of  their  rejection  of  the  Church  order  and  its  representatives, 
to  the  gainsaying  of  Korah  against  Moses  and  Aaron. 

The  absence  of  reference  to  the  errorists'  doctrine  of  creation  and 
to  denial  of  a  resurrection  body,  which  would  be  the  outcome  of  the 
dualistic  allusions  found  by  Moffatt,  Introd.  p.,  353,  Werdermann, 
p.  93  f.  and  Bleek-Mangold,  1875,  p.  645,  would  be  sufficiently 
accounted  for  by  the  compressed  character  of  Jude  and  by  the 
interest  of  both  Jude  and  II  Peter  in  the  controlling  general  features 
of  the  false  teaching.  Omission  of  mention  of  asceticism  could  be 
due  to  the  absence  of  this  feature  from  the  special  form  of  the 
hydra-headed  gnostic  system  here  propagated.   There  is  also,  how- 


338    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

ever,  the  possibility  that  it  could  emerge  as  elsewhere,  in  here  un- 
recorded forms  of  contempt  of  the  psychical  nature  by  those  who 
boast  to  be  pneumatics. 

From  this  study  of  the  direct  references  and  of  the  possible  allu- 
sions to  the  positions  of  the  errorists  combatted,  we  conclude  that 
while  their  immorality  and  abuse  of  the  agapae  are  the  chief  ob- 
jects of  the  writers^  denunciations  and  warnings,  yet  these  features 
of  the  movement  are  the  outcome  of  their  perversion  of  the 
Church's  fundamental  faith,  hope  and  fellowship,  and  rest  on 
the  boasts  of  emancipating  gnosis.  Further,  as  Zahn,  Liitgert, 
Hollmann  and  Werdermann  agree,  all  these  features  already 
appear  in  the  opposition  of  the  errorists  at  Corinth;  and  we  have 
found  them  reappearing  in  all  the  Pauline  Epistles  after  Galatians 
as  well  as  in  Hebrews  and  I  Peter. ^^  We  fail  also  to  detect  in 
Jude  and  II  Peter  any  indications  that  the  opposing  'error  betrays 
the  special  characteristics  of  gnostic  systems  as  developed  in  the 
second  century.  Werdermann,  p.  138,  shows  that  of  five  essential 
features  of  the  Carpocratian  system,  to  which  since  Clement  of 
Alexandria  our  two  Epistles  are  alleged  to  refer,  only  one  is  com- 
mon: ' antinomianism  combined  with  contempt  for  angelic  powers.' 
Antinomianism  is  no  proof  of  identity  with  this  special  gnostic  sect, 
inasmuch  as  we  have  found  it  to  be  a  constant  element  among  all 
the  errorists  since  their  emergence  in  the  Thessalonian  Epistles; 
and  the  contempt  of  angels,  which  has  been  found  in  Jude  and 
II  Peter,  has  by  no  means  a  central  position,  such  as  it  has  in  Car- 
pocrates.  It  can  be,  as  already  suggested,  an  accompaniment  of 
either  of  the  constant  features  of  the  earliest  form  of  gnosticism, 
antinomianism  and  denial  of  Christian  eschatology. 

So  far  therefore  as  the  date  and  genuineness  of  the  two  Epistles 
are  affected  by  the  character  of  the  error  opposed,  we  have  met 
with  nothing  while  restricting  our  attention  to  it,  to  prevent  aj 
view  of  their  publication  at  any  time  from  the  seventh  decade  on- 
ward, in  the  lifetime  of  the  writers  whose  names  they  bear.    Wer-^ 
dermann,  who  regards  II  Peter  as  pseudonymous  and  who  assi| 
both  Epistles  to  a  date  about  80  a.  d.,  nevertheless  concludes  that 

"  Werdermann  compares  the  errorists  of  Jude  and  II  Peter  with  those  in] 
the  N.  T.  Epistles  in  pp.  124-135.    See  also  Mayor's  commentary  on  Jude] 
and  II  Peter,  chap.  XI:  False  teachers  in  the  Church  towards  the  end  of  tl 
first  century. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  339 

'such  gnostics  are  historically  possible  just  as  well  at  70  as  at  150 
A.  D.'  This  first  century  dating  will  be  still  further  supported  by  a 
comparison  with  the  Johannine  Epistles,  which  are  assigned  to  its 
closing  decade,  and  which  we  shall  next  briefly  survey. 

THE  FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  JOHN 

The  First  Epistle  of  John  is  written  for  the  establishment  of 
readers  who  have  already  overcome  an  attack  on  their  Christian 
faith  and  life.  *  It  is  a  specimen  of  ApostoUc  preaching  to  believers, 
a  masterpiece  in  the  art  of  edification.  The  Apostle  sought  in  the 
strengthening  and  purifying  of  the  spirit  of  love,  the  prophylactic 
for  the  Church  against  intellectual  error.  ^*  Similarly,  Law,  *  al- 
though explicit  controversial  allusions  in  the  Epistle  are  few,  are 
limited  indeed  to  two  passages,  2,  18  f.,  4,  Iff.,  in  which  certain 
false  teachers  designated  as  antichrists  are  unsparingly  denounced, 
there  is  no  New  Testament  writing  which  is  more  vigorously 
polemical  in  its  whole  tone  and  aim.'  °^ 

The  character  of  the  error  attacked  could  in  large  measure  be 
reconstructed  from  the  contents  and  literary  structure  of  the 
opening  section  1,  1-2,  17,  with  the  help  of  the  recurring  phrases, 
'  If  we  say,'  *  I  write,' '  By  this  we  know,'  *  He  who  says,'  and  by  the 
contrasts  in  the  parallel  statements.  And  the  validity  of  this 
method,  which  we  have  elsewhere  applied  would  be  supported 
by  the  succeeding  references.  We  shall  begin,  however,  with  the 
direct  description  in  2,  18  ff.  of  'those  who  deceive  you,'  vs.  26.  As 
in  the  Paulines,  II  Peter  and  Jude,  their  appearance  is  a  fulfillment 
of  the  Gospel  predictions  of  false  prophets  in  the  last  times.  Their 
attack  has  indeed  been  repelled:  'ye  have  overcome  them,'  4,  4; 
and  their  withdrawal  from  the  Church,  2,  19,  can  be  regarded  as 
due  to  their  failure  to  draw  away  the  readers,  vss.  14-17,  from  the 
Apostolic  tradition  of  the  Gospel.  Their  reentrance  is  barred  by 
the  injunction,  II  John.  10  f. :  receive  him  not  into  your  house  and 

^  G.  G.  Findlay,  Fellowship  in  the  Life  Eternal,  pp.  59.50. 

^^  R.  Law,  The  Tests  of  Life,  p.  25.  A  list  of  the  works  relating  to  this 
polemical  element  in  I  John  is  given  by  A.  Wurm,  Die  Irrlehrer  im  1.  J  oh' 
annesbrief,  1903.  His  own  view  is  that  the  errorists  are  secularized  Jewish 
Christians  who  have  been  led  by  Jewish  taunts  to  regard  Jesus  as  only  a 
great  prophet,  and  to  elevate  the  Jewish  Law  above  the  Christian  moral 
ideals.  We  shall,  however,  accept  in  general  the  construction  of  W.  Liitgert, 
Amt  und  Geist  im  Kampf,  1911. 


340    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

refuse  him  Christian  greeting.  The  readers  will  naturally  still  be 
exposed  to  their  influence  and  continued  propaganda,  which  is 
therefore  controverted  in  the  Epistle  in  its  controUing  features. 
Here  again,  in  connection  with  the  practical  religious  aims  of  the 
writer,  we  have  no  delineation  of  the  opposing  system,  but  of  its 
contradictions  of  the  essential  Christian  positions. 

Its  fundamental  doctrinal  error,  denial  and  lie  concerns  faith  in 
Christ.  The  liar  is  he  who  denies  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  2,  22. 
That  such  a  denier  is  the  antichrist,  does  not  point,  as  Wurm 
argues,  to  Jewish  rejection  of  Jesus'  claims,  but  to  a  denial  of  the 
possibility  of  a  real  union  of  the  heavenly  Christ  and  the  human 
Jesus.  This  appears  in  the  fuller  statements  and  consequences 
of  their  denials  in  the  section  against  false  prophets,  4,  1  ff.  Paul 
in  I  Cor.  12,  1-3,  has  a  similar  reference:  negatively,  no  one  in  the 
Spirit  says  Anathema  Jesus;  and  no  one  is  able  to  say 'Kurios  Jesus 
but  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  Here  in  I  John,  positively,  the  confession 
in  the  Spirit  is  'Jesus  as  Christ  come  in  the  flesh';  whence  the 
refusal  of  this  confession  is  in  itself  a  denial  of  Christ  as  really 
incarnate  in  Jesus.^^  The  textual  variant  5  Xuet  *l7iaovv  in  vs.  3, 
he  who  annuls  or  divides  Jesus,  is  regarded  byZahn,  Introd.,  §  70, 
n.  6,  as  the  probably  original  reading.  If  adopted,  and  especially 
with  the  addition  in  various  manuscripts  of  Lord  or  Christ,  it 
would  express  the  mode  of  their  denial  more  definitely  as  a  dividing 
of  heavenly  Christ  from  Jesus:  either  on  the  theory  of  a  literal  and 
lifelong  docetism  and  phantasm,  or  of  a  division  before  and  after 
his  public  ministry.  But  even  in  our  critical  texts  the  denial  of  a 
real  incarnation  is  plainly  indicated;  and  it  is  to  be  further  recog- 
nized in  the  succeeding  section  of  the  contrasted  apostolic  confes- 
sion, 4,  7  ff . :  Jesus  as  Christ  come  in  the  flesh,  is  the  only  begotten 
Son  sent  into  the  world  that  we  might  live  through  him. 

In  this  denial  of  a  real  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  is  included 
the  denial  of  his  real  death  and  therefore  of  its  redemptive  power, 
especially  when,  as  in  the  false  teaching,  there  is  a  denial  of  sin  and 
hence  of  any  need  of  atonement.  Consequently  in  the  special 
sections  rebutting  the  teachings  of  the  false  prophets,  recur  the 
opposing  reaffirmations  of  the  Apostolic  gospel.    The  Son  is  sent  to 

•"  For  this  construction  of  'Christ  come  in  the  flesh'  as  secondary  predicate 
which  is  recognized  as  permissible  by  Westcott  and  Holtzmann  and  which  is 
adopted  by  Law,  following  Haupt,  see  Law,  p.  94,  note,  and  Findlay,  p.  317  f. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  341 

be  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  4,  14;  was  manifested,  3,  5,  to  take 
away  sins;  was  sent  to  be  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world,  4,  10;  2,  2;  whence  our  sins  are  forgiven  for  his  name's  sake, 
2,  12,  since  he  laid  down  his  life  on  our  behalf,  3,  16.  And  it  is  the 
blood  of  Jesus,  God's  Son,  which  cleanses  us  from  all  sin,  2,  7;  for 
in  5,  6,  he  came  not  in  the  water  only,  but  in  the  water  and  in  the 
blood. 

These  representative  christological  statements  are  recognized  by 
the  majority  of  scholars  as  directed  against  some  form  of  gnostic 
docetism  and  its  accompanying  rejection  of  a  redemptive  death  of 
the  Christ.  Frequently  Cerinthus,  with  whom  tradition  connects 
John,  is  regarded  as  the  leader  of  the  opposing  movement;  although 
this  Epistle  assumes  groups  of  false  prophets  rather  than  a  definite 
leader  of  the  errorists;  and  further,  these  doctrinal  errors  have  been 
found  to  be  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  false  teachers 
attacked  in  the  earlier  PauHne  Epistles.  The  exact  form  of  the 
docetic  doctrine  in  I  John  is  still  debated.  Liitgert,  pp.  10  ff.  and 
45,  maintains  that  it  was  docetism  in  the  full  literal  sense:  denial  of 
the  reality  of  the  body,  the  flesh,  the  death  of  Christ,  who  was  re- 
garded only  as  a  theophany.  On  the  contrary,  and  in  agreement 
with  Mofifatt  and  Zahn,  we  find  in  connection  with  5,  6  f.,  a  refer- 
ence to  a  theory  of  some  temporary  union  of  the  heavenly  Christ 
with  Jesus  from  his  baptism  until  the  assumed  abandonment  be- 
fore his  p€ission,  thus  depriving  his  death  on  the  cross  of  significance 
as  a  redeeming  ministry  of  the  divine  Christ. 

Besides  this  perversion  of  the  fundamental  faith,  the  errorists 
are  equally  opposed  to  the  Christian  hope  of  the  Parousia.  Denial 
that  Jesus  is  Christ  is  itself  a  denial  of  his  coming  as  Messiah  in 
glory  at  a  general  resurrection  with  its  accompanying  world-judg- 
ment. Hence  in  2,  28-3,  3,  following  the  discussion  of  the  denial  of 
Jesus'  messiahship,  the  form  of  the  references  to  his  manifestation 
and  to  our  boldness  in  his  Parousia,  when  we  shall  be  like  him  and 
see  him  as  he  is,  is  viewed  by  Knopf,  Liitgert  and  others,  as  occa- 
sioned by  the  rejection  of  this  hope  by  those  who  deny  that  he  is 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God  come  in  the  flesh.  But  establishment 
against  these  errors  concerning  Christian  faith  and  hope  is  not 
sought  to  be  effected  by  the  method  of  discussion  of  the  opposing 
system.  The  various  'Tests,'  around  which  Law  has  grouped  his 
exposition  of  the  Epistle,  by  which  we  know  the  Spirit  of  truth  and 


342    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  spirit  of  error,  are  based  on  conformity  with  the  Apostolic 
tradition  of  the  Gospel,  1, 1-4:  the  witness  concerning  the  reality  of 
the  manifestation  of  the  Word  of  life,  both  in  his  earthly  ministry, 
in  his  resurrection  appearances  when  'our  hands  have  handled 
him,'  and  in  the  personal  experience  of  direct  fellowship  of  believers 
in  him,  with  the  Father  and  with  his  Son. 

The  allusions  to  denial  of  the  Parousia,  3,  3,  closed  with  the  con- 
stant New  Testament  statement  that  the  Christian  hope  of  glory 
is  the  effective  inspiration  of  Christian  morals;  and  the  immediately 
ensuing  section  of  warning  against  deception  concerning  freedom 
to  sin,  shows  that  the  christological  error  was  linked  with  false  doc- 
trine as  to  Christian  morality.  The  contents  and  structure  of  the 
whole  Epistle  likewise  show  that  it  is  directed  against  these  two 
errors.  Haring  analyzes  it  into  three  sections  beginning  at  1,  5; 
2,  18;  and  4,  7,  each  in  two  divisions  of  discussion  of  the  ethical 
and  christological  theses,  which  advances  from  their  separate 
treatment  in  the  first  section,  to  their  connection  and  finally  to  the 
basis  of  their  inseparability.^^  Wurm  also  clearly  shows,  pp.  129  ff. 
that  for  the  practical  pastoral  aims  of  the  writer,  the  moral  error 
was  the  more  pressing  danger;  especially  'as  it  appears  to  be  per- 
fectly plain  that  every  believer  knows  that  the  denial  of  Jesus  as 
the  Christ  is  a  lie,'  cp.  also  2, 14;  4, 4. 

It  is,  however,  frequently  denied  that  the  immoral  teaching  is 
the  outcome  of  the  christological  error,  as  by  Zahn,  Intyod.,  Ill, 
363,  who  finds  a  lack  of  every  trace  and  intimation  of  connection 
between  the  ethical  discussions  and  the  statements  concerning  the 
Person  of  Christ;  and  further,  that  the  ethical  injunctions  are  not 
directed  against  immorality  on  a  theoretical  basis.  Even  when 
the  two  errors  are  ascribed  to  the  same  system  of  teaching,  it  is 
often  denied,  as  by  Wurm,  that  the  immorality  is  opposed  as  being 
founded  on  an  antinomian  theory;  and  still  more  frequently  is  it 
denied  that  the  immorality  refers  to  sensual  libertinism.*^ 

•*  Th.  Haring,  Gedankengang  und  Grundegedanke  des  1.  Johannesbriefs, 
in  Theolog.  AhhancUungen  zum  C.  Weizadcker,  pp.  173-200.  Law,  Tests  of 
Ldfe,  p.  24,  finds  this  analysis  to  be  on  precisely  the  same  lines  as  his  own  in 
three  cycles,  pp.  5-24,  although  he  considers  preferable  his  own  division  of 
the  ethical  test  into  that  of  righteousness  and  love. 

"Windisch,  Hbuch.  z.  N.  T.,  IV,  2,  pp.  HI,  117,  122,  is  undecided  as  to 
the  identity  of  origin  of  the  two  errors;  and  while  admitting  the  possibility 
that  the  ethical  error  may  be  antinomian  in  character,  denies  in  any  case  a 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  343 

We  believe  on  the  other  hand  with  the  scholars  listed  by  Wurm, 
p.  128,  fco  whom  are  to  be  added,  Raring,  Law,  Lutgert  and  Mof- 
fatt,  that  the  moral  and  christological  errors  belonged  to  one  sys- 
tem of  false  gnosticizing  teaching.  We  can  also  recognize  with 
Lutgert,  p.  22,  that  the  emphasis  on  the  *  commandment,'  which 
occurs  in  I  John  14  times,  oftener  indeed  than  in  any  other  New 
Testament  writing,  is  due  like  the  similar  stress  on  good  works  in 
the  Pastorals,  to  the  Apostle's  antagonism  to  an  immoraUty  on 
antinomian  principles.  When  the  errorists  teach  that  for  those 
endowed  with  the  Spirit's  gift  of  freedom,  disobedience  to  any 
moral  command  is  not  sin,  he  asserts  both  that  all  unrighteousness 
is  sin,  5,  17,  and  also  3,  4,  that  every  one  that  doeth  sin  doeth  also 
lawlessness.  And  he  adds  'and  sin  is  lawlessness,'  where  'avofxla 
evidently  signifies  a  heightening  of  sin:  the  conscious  rejection  of 
law  on  principle,  or  antinomianism.'  The  fact  that  the  immor- 
ality opposed  is  practiced  on  this  principle  of  false  emancipation, 
appears  in  all  the  numerous  passages  concerning  unrighteousness 
and  lack  of  love.  These  are  not  warnings  against  sins  of  the 
readers  due,  in  the  view  of  earlier  commentators,  to  declension 
in  faith  and  to  flagging  love.  Wurm,  p.  88,  has  collected  the  pas- 
sages in  which  the  Apostle  attests  the  high  standard  of  their  Chris- 
tian Ufe;  and  as  he  states,  we  can  hardly  cite  a  Pauline  church  to 
which  its  founder  pays  so  great  a  tribute  of  recognition.  The 
warnings  against  unrighteousness  must  therefore  be  directed 
against  the  false  prophets  whose  denials  of  Jesus  as  the  Christ  are 
accompanied  with  rejection  of  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Gospel, 
manifested  in  their  unrighteousness  of  Ufe  which  they  claim  as  the 
privilege  of  their  gift  of  freedom. 

R.  Law  in  discussing.  Chap.  XI,  the  Tests  of  Righteousness  in 
the  section  2,  29-3,  10,  finds  that  the  clear  implication  of  'Little 
childreii  let  no  man  deceive  you:  he  that  doeth  righteousness  is 
righteous'  and  of  the  related  passages,  is  'that  there  were  persons 
who  taught  the  contrary  doctrine:  that  one  may  be  truly  righteous 
apart  from  doing  of  righteous  deeds,  and  that  on  the  other  hand, 

reference  to  sins  of  impurity.  Westcott  holds  that  'teaching  of  the  Epistle 
turns  upon  the  Person  of  Christ.  The  false  teaching  with  which  it  deals  is 
Docetic  and  specifically  Cerinthian.'  In  his  introduction,  p.  xxxvii,  he  evi- 
dently regards  the  moral  injunctions  not  as  occasioned  by  false  christology, 
but  by  the  delusion  that  intellectual  assent  apart  from  conduct,  is  sufficient. 


344    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  mere  doing  of  sinful  acts  is  no  disproof  of  inward  spirituality, 
nor  incompatible  with  the  status  of  divine  sonship/  p.  219. 
Against  their  claims  to  be  bom  of  God,  to  know  God,  to  have 
fellowship  with  him,  to  abide  in  him,  to  have  his  Spirit,  and  also 
that  for  them  law  does  not  obtain,  the  writer  asserts  that  God  who 
begets  is  righteous,  is  pure,  is  Ught,  is  love.  He  therefore  that 
is  bom  of  God,  doth  not  sin,  3, 9,  because  his  seed  abideth  in  him; 
and  in  contradiction  to  the  errorists '  claim,  'cannot  sin,'  cp.  Law, 
pp.  225-228,  but  walks  in  the  Hght  as  he  is  in  the  Ught,  walks  as 
Christ  the  righteous  walked,  purifieth  himself  as  he  is  pure,  doeth 
righteousness  as  he  is  righteous.  Hereby  we  know  that  we  know 
him,  if  we  keep  his  commandments,  in  antithesis  to  the  errorists' 
claim  to  freedom  and  perfection  in  their  gnosis,  which  is  refuted  in 
the  opening  discussion,  1,  5-2,  6. 

Such  a  system,  lacking  the  inspiration  of  the  love  of  God  revealed 
in  Christ's  incarnation  and  death,  cp.  Rom.  5,  5-11,  rejecting  too 
the  claims  of  obedience  to  any  external  authority,  even  to  the 
moral  teachings  of  the  Gospel,  boasting  of  perfection  apart  from 
conformity  to  any  commands  of  righteousness  and  love,  would 
obviously  break  down  the  barriers  against  all  forms  of  immorality. 
Hence  there  is  a  valid  presumption  that  it  would  lead  to  sensual 
sins  of  libertinism,  which  have  been  found  to  be  characteristic  of 
similar  errorists  in  the  earUer  Epistles.  This  presumption  never- 
theless, as  already  stated,  is  very  generally  opposed;  and  princi- 
pally on  the  ground  that  no  direct  statements  in  regard  to  sins  of 
impurity  are  made.  Yet  this  is  not  decisive,  in  view  of  the  Epistle's 
general  method  of  recurring  emphasis  on  a  few  controlUng  prin- 
ciples and  characteristics.  There  are,  moreover,  two  passages  in 
which  allusion  to  sensual  sins  have  been  found.  In  2,  15-17,  as 
recognized  by  Ltitgert,  Wurm  and  others,  a  reference  is  made  to 
errorists  in  contrast  to  the  faithful  children  of  vss.  12-14.  They 
have  not  the  love  of  the  Father  but  of  the  world.  And  specifically 
this  love  of  the  things  that  are  in  the  world,  includes  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  the  lust  .of  the  eyes  and  the  vaunting  of  earthly  possessions. 
The  interpretation  of  this  threefold  description  ranges  from  a 
general  view,  as  by  Westcott,  that  it  covers  the  whole  ground  of 
worldliness  and  would  not  therefore  specially  characterize  the 
false  teachers  nor  emphasize  their  sensual  sins,  to  the  view  of  a 
concrete   threefold    reference,  as   by   Holtzmann,    to   lewdness, 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  345 

to  pleasure  in  immoral  exhibitions,  referring  to  Tertullian  de 
spectaculis  7,  and  to  ostentatious  display  of  wealth.  Holtzmann 
also  further  generalizes  these  references  as  the  most  repulsive 
degree  of  sin,  as  cultus  of  the  beautiful  rather  than  religion,  and  as 
the  hfe  of  illusion. 

Lutgert,  p.  34,  interprets  them  concretely  and  also  applies  them 
to  the  errorists:  to  their  libertinism,  to  their  attendance  at  theat- 
rical and  similar  enticing  exhibitions,  and  to  their  vaunting  of 
worldly  possessions  on  the  ground  of  their  freedom  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  nature,  art  and  wealth.  But  whatever  specific  interpreta- 
tion may  be  adopted  of  the  last  two  in  the  series,  it  seems  clear 
that  lust  of  the  flesh  refers  to  sensual  sins  of  the  errorists.  It  can- 
not simply  sum  up  in  general  the  sins  of  the  imregenerate  man,®^ 
since  it  is  distinguished  from,  and  not  analyzed  into,  other 
forms  of  fleshly  sin.  It  is  a  special  form  of  the  sin  of  those  who 
^went  out  from  us'  into  the  world;  who  are  of  the  world;  who  love 
the  things  in  the  world,  of  which  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  in  view  of  the 
constant  New  Testament  demmciations  of  the  prevaiUng  con- 
temporary impurity,  naturally  refers  to  their  sensual  sins.  The 
closing  words  'guard  yourselves  from  idols, '  point  to  the  same  con- 
clusion. They  involve  more  than  a  mere  warning  against  idolatry, 
towards  which  the  Christian  readers  surely  had  no  tendency. 
They  are  on  the  contrary  a  solemn  injunction  against  the  practice 
of  the  false  teachers  claiming  freedom  to  attend  the  heathen  feasts 
and  to  indulge  in  the  sensuality  connected  with  them,  as  Paul  had 
warned  his  readers  in  I  Cor.  10,  6-14. 

One  other  marked  feature  of  the  errorists  was  their  disregard  of 
the  Christian  fellowship.  Their  system  was  essentially  disruptive. 
They  had  indeed  already  'gone  out  from  us';  and  this  departure 
and  their  continued  propagation  from  without  of  their  christologi- 
cal  and  ethical  errors,  involved  a  repudiation  of  the  authority  of 
the  Gospel  tradition  and  of  its  Apostolic  ministry  in  the  fellowship 

'3  Wurm's  construction  of  the  errorists  as  retrograding  secularized  Jewish 
Christians,  compels  him  to  deny  that  they  were  antinomian  libertines.  He 
therefore  develops,  pp.  116-121,  the  view  which  Wendt,  Die  Begriffe  Fleisch 
und  Geist,  p.  68,  considers  more  probable:  that  the  lust  of  the  flesh  refers  not 
to  specific  sensual  sins,  but  generally  to  desires  of  the  unspiritual  man  as 
belonging  to  the  earthly  sphere;  and  further,  with  Wendt,  that  this  lust  is 
the  higher  concept  under  which  are  subsumed  desires  for  worldly  recognition 
and  possessions  and  the  boastful  display  of  them. 


346    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

of  believers.  Hence  the  initial  emphasis,  1,  3-7,  on  fellowship  with 
those  who  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  incarnation  and  the  moral 
walk  in  light.  For  in  this  fellowship  is  fellowship  with  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  based  upon  the  propitiation  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world,  in  contrast  to  the  exclusiveness  of  the 
false  teachers.  And  all  through  the  Epistle  this  fellowship  is 
manifested  in  the  love  of  the  brethren.  The  interest  of  the  writer 
to  counteract  the  divisive  influence  arising  from  the  several  denials 
of  the  system  of  error,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  fellowship  is  the 
unifying  topic  of  the  Epistle.  Following  Moffatt,  Introd.,  p.  584, 
who  regards  its  plan  as  unstudied,  as  variations  on  one  or  two 
simple  themes,  we  notice  that  Christian  fellowship  is  the  subject, 
whose  definition  is  given  in  1,  Iff.  Its  conditions  are  outlined  in 
the  antitheses  of  light  and  darkness,  as  a  sense  of  sin  and  forgive- 
ness and  as  obedience  to  the  law  of  brotherly  love,  -1,  5  ff.  The 
dangers  which  threaten  the  existence  of  any  fellowship  with  God 
or  man,  are  shown  to  inhere  in  the  heretical  view  of  Christ's 
person,  2, 18  ff .  The  characteristics  of  fellowship  as  sinlessness  and 
brotherly  love  are  developed  in  3,  1-5,  12;  and  the  epilogue,  5, 
13  ff .  *  specially  notes  the  danger  of  lapsing  and  the  treatment  of 
the  lapsi'  i.  e.,  from  the  Christian  fellowship. 

*  While  the  Christian  society  is  everywhere  contemplated  in  its 
definite  spiritual  completeness,  nothing  is  said  on  any  detail  of 
ritual  or  organization,'  Westcott,  p.  xxxviii.  In  the  face  of 
teachings  subversive  of  fellowship  with  God  in  one  human  brother- 
hood in  which  is  ministered  the  ApostoUc  faith,  hope  and  moral 
life  of  love,  the  writer  is  intent  on  the  establishment  of  the  faithful 
in  these  fundamental  principles  of  Christian  fellowship  and  in  their 
manifestation  in  the  Christian  life  of  purity  and  united  devotion  of 
love  to  God,  to  their  brethren  and  to  the  world  whose  propitiation 
and  Saviour  is  the  incarnate  Christ. 

The  errorists  indeed,  while  repudiating  the  ApostoHc  fellowship, 
claim  for  themselves  1,  6,  a  direct,  exclusive  fellowship  with  the 
Father  and  a  walk  in  light.  In  the  constantly  recurring  references 
to  'knowing,'  in  the  rebuttals  of  positions  introduced  by  4f  we 
say,'  *he  who  says'  and  in  the  tests  and  assurances  of  truth  and 
life,  we  note  that  both  this  claim  of  divine  fellowship  and  their 
denials  of  the  Apostolic  teachings  are  assailed  as  resting  on  a  false 
system  of  an  exclusive  gnosis.    Their  perversions  of  the  faith  in  the 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  347 

revelation  of  God  in  Christ  as  he  is  preached  in  the  Churches 
Gospel,  cp.  II  Cor.  4,  3-6,  are  based  on  the  claim  to  know  God 
directly,  2,  3-6.  Rejection  of  the  Christian  hope  of  seeing  Christ 
as  he  is,  when  he  shall  be  manifested;  of  our  being  then  like  him 
with  glorified  bodies,  as  in  Philippians  3,  21;  as  well  as  their  false 
security  in  denials  of  a  day  of  judgment,  is  the  outcome  of  their 
boasts  of  already  seeing  God  in  their  visions  and  revelations,  3,  6; 
4,  12.20.  Immorality  and  unrighteousness  cloaked  under  the 
assertions  that  they  have  no  sin  and  are  walking  in  the  light, 
is  an  antinomianism  which  claims  the  possession  of  the  Spirit 
as  their  sole  authority  for  conduct.  And  similarly,  repudia- 
tion of  Christian  fellowship  is  justified  by  them  in  their  op- 
posing boasts  of  fellowship  with  God,  of  birth  from  God 
and  of  abiding  in  God  through  their  gift  of  his  indwelling 
Spirit. 

And  therefore  these  outstanding  characteristics  of  the  system 
are  denounced  throughout  the  Epistle  as  the  issues  of  a  spurious 
gnosis.  As  regards  the  finality  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ, 
its  teaching  is  error,  a  lie,  is  not  of  the  truth;  and  instead  of  being 
inspired  by  God's  Spirit,  it  makes  him  a  liar  and  rejects  the  wit- 
ness he  has  given  concerning  his  Son,  5,  10  f.  Its  rejection  of 
Christian  eschatology,  because  of  its  present  visions,  revelations 
and  sight  of  God,  is  in  truth,  like  their  hatred  of  the  brethren, 
blindness  not  sight,  2,  11;  and  bUndness  'as  a  complete  ignorance 
of  the  way  and  end  of  life ' :  he  knoweth  not  whither  he  goeth.  The 
immoral  walk  in  this  darkness  is  exposed  repeatedly  as  occasioned 
by  spurious  claims  of  gnosis  by  teachers  and  false  prophets  who  in 
4,  1  ff.  are  in  reality  not  illuminated  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  by 
the  spirit  of  error.  The  manifestations  of  that  spirit  reveal  there- 
fore that  instead  of  being  in  fellowship  with  God,  they  are 
sons  of  the  devil,  are  of  the  world,  are  not  of  the  Father  and 
of  the  truth;  and  hence  are  without  brotherly  love  towards  his 
children;  and  '  hear  not  us,  *  the  preachers  of  the  Apostolic  Gos- 
pel, whose  fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  system  is  met,  as  in  earlier  Epistles,  not  only  by  the  method 
of  exposure  and  of  confident  appeal  to  the  unchanging  validity  and 
power  of  the  primitive  Gospel,  but  also  by  emphasis  on  the  posses- 
sion and  development  of  true  gnosis  of  the  divine  revelation,  in 


348    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  Christian  life.^^  The  readers  'know'  that  they  are  bom  of 
God,  abide  in  him  and  he  in  them;  and  they  know  this  by  the 
Spirit  he  has  given  them,  3,  24.  For  the  seed  which  abides  in 
them,  3,  9,  is  with  Holtzmann  and  Westcott,  the  germ  of  a  new 
life  by  the  creative  power  of  the  Spirit  through  the  word  of  God, 
op.  2,  14.  In  2,  20.27  with  this  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  an  anointing, 
Xpto-jua,  a  principle  of  illumination  as  in  Ephes.  1,  17  if.,  as  the 
characteristic  endowment  of  all  Christians;  a  gift  from  Christ  the 
Holy  One,  whom  God  anointed  with  the  Holy  Spirit  and  power. 
Acts  10,  38.  While  the  errorists,  2,  23  ,in  their  denial  of  the  Son 
have  not  the  Father  and  are  therefore  without  the  true  illumination 
of  his  anointing,  the  readers  on  the  contrary  need  not  that  any, 
especially  the  errorists,  teach  them,  since  the  anointing  teaches 
them  concerning  all  things. 

Among  other  passages,  4,  13  ff.  renews  the  teaching  of  the 
earlier  Epistles  regarding  the  development  of  faith  in  Jesus  as  Son 
of  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world,  in  gnosis  of  God's  love  mani- 
fested in  a  life  of  obedience  and  brotherly  love,  as  the  condition  of 
our  abiding  in  God,  of  our  perfecting  and  therefore  of  our  boldness 
in  the  day  of  Judgment.  We  have  also  two  threefold  summaries  of 
the  'fundamental  features  of  this  true  gnosis,'  Holtzmann.  In 
5, 18  f.  the  specific  moral  character  and  purpose  of  the  revelation  of 
redemption  is  expressed  in  the  statement  that  we  know  that  he 
that  is  begotten  of  God  sinneth  not;  keepeth  himself,  as  Holtz- 
mann, Law,  Windisch,  etc.,  interpret;  or  with  Westcott,  that 
Christ  who  was  begotten  of  God  keepeth  him.  In  either  case  the 
evil  one  toucheth  him  not.  Next  we  know  in  this  life  of  moral 
obedience  that  we  are  bom  of  God,  in  contrast  to  the  world  which 
is  opposed  to  the  Christian  society  and  which  *is  in  the  domain  and 
under  the  influence  of  the  evil  one.'  And  these  two  features  of 
knowledge,  vss.  18  and  19,  of  direct  certainty  of  life  in  God  and 
of  God  in  us,  are  based  in  vs.  20  upon  our  knowledge,  personal 
experience  and  faith  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  upon  his 
spiritual  gift  of  *an  understanding  that  we  may  know  him  that  is 

**  Moffatt,  Introd.,  p.  687.  'The  evident  care  and  caution  in  rejecting  these 
semi-gnoetic  views  is  thrown  into  relief  by  the  fact  that  he  and  his  fellow- 
Christians  were  themselves  breathing  and  enjoying  an  atmosphere  of  such 
mystical  conceptions.  Christianity  involves  the  historical  Jesus,  but  none 
the  less  is  it  a  gnoais.' 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  349 

true;  and  we  are  in  him  that  is  true  even  in  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ. 

We  have  also  in  2,  12  f.  a  similar  description  of  a  true  gnostic. 
The  'little  children, '  vs.  14,  have  known  the  Father;  and  in  the 
parallel  vs.  12  this  gnosis  is  primarily  their  direct  ceri;ainty  of 
salvation:  the  Father's  love  is  manifested  in  the  forgiveness  of 
their  sins  for  his  name's  sake,  Hhe  fundamental  principle  of 
development  of  the  Christian  life.'  Among  these  children,  the 
fathers  have  known  him  who  is  from  the  beginning:  have  stood 
firm  in  faith  and  gnosis  of  Jesus  Christ  as  Son  of  God,  1,  1-4, 
repelling  the  false  christology  of  the  errorists.  The  young  men  are 
strong,  both  because  the  word  of  God  preached  by  its  Apostolic 
witnesses  abides  in  them  as  the  source  of  their  strength,  and  also 
because,  4,  5  f.,  greater  is  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth  that  is  in  them 
than  the  spirit  of  error.  Their  strength  is  seen  in  their  over- 
coming the  evil  one  attacking  them  in  the  immoral  teachings  and 
doctrinal  errors  of  the  antichrists.  Both  of  these  descriptions  are 
especially  concerned  with  the  relation  of  true  gnosis  to  faith  in 
Christ  and  to  keeping  his  commandment  of  love  fulfilling  all  law; 
and  as  has  appeared  in  the  preceding  references,  this  relation  in- 
volves also  the  connection  of  gnosis  with  the  Christian  hope,  2, 
28  fiP.;  4,  16,  as  the  animation  of  the  moral  life  of  love  of  believers 
united  in  brotherhood  and  fellowship  with  the  witnesses  of  the 
Apostolic  Gospel,  1,  6-8;  4,  6.7. 

In  this  construction  of  the  general  features  of  the  system  op- 
posed in  I  John,  we  can  thus  mark  that  the  method  of  exposing 
and  refuting  it  is  precisely  similar  to  the  defense  and  polemic 
against  the  errorists  in  earlier  Epistles.  We  can  also  recognize 
with  Ltitgert,  p. 47  f.,that  the  characteristic  features  of  the  errorists 
in  I  John  have  appeared  with  increasing  distinctness  in  the  New 
Testament  Epistles  from  I  Thess.  onwards:  docetic  christology, 
leading  to  denials  of  an  incarnation  and  a  redemptive  death;  to 
rejection  also  of  the  Christian  eschatology,  along  with  the  claim 
of  present  possession  of  the  eschatological  blessings,  in  their  gifts 
of  the  Spirit;  a  resulting  antinomian  emancipation  from  the 
authority  of  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Gospel;  and  a  spirit  of 
division,  exclusiveness,  unbrotherly  contempt  and  rejection  of 
fellowship  with  the  Apostolic  Church,  as  the  outcome  of  boasts  of 
superior  individual  gifts  of  gnosis,  visions  and  revelations. 


350    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Owing  to  its  method  of  constant  repetition  and  interweaving  of  a 
few  dominating  themes,  and  in  part  to  its  definite  practical  aims, 
the  Epistle  does  not  enable  us  to  determine  whether  some  special 
featm-es  found  in  earlier  New  Testament  references  to  the  gnostic 
movement,  were  also  found  in  the  teaching  it  opposed.  The 
absence  of  allusion  to  the  asceticism  which  is  found  along  with 
libertinism  in  several  previous  Epistles,  points  most  naturally 
as  suggested  in  connection  with  Jude  and  II  Peter,  to  the  sup- 
position that  this  type  of  the  varied  forms  of  gnosticism  was  not 
then  propagated  in  the  Apostle's  circle.  Angelic  or  other  series  of 
gnostic  mediators  receive  no  mention.  But  this  silence  is  not 
conclusive  as  to  presence  of  this  element  in  the  system  combatted. 
It  would  be  a  characteristic  of  the  method  of  tne  writer,  simply  to 
set  aside  such  a  teaching  by  emphasizing,  cp.  5,  10-12,  the  sole 
mediation  of  Christ  in  revelation  and  redemption  as*  the  word  of 
life,  the  propitiation  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world;  and  as  in  1,  3 
to  affirm  our  direct  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  his  Son.  It 
is  conceivable  therefore  that  this  speculation,  which  is  found 
before  and  after  I  John,  was  also  a  part  of  gnostic  theory  of  that 
period.  There  are,  further,  as  Wurm  shows,  pp.  1-8,  not  sufficient 
data  in  the  Epistle  to  indicate  a  special  dualistic  doctrine  of  God 
in  relation  to  creation.  Whether  the  errorists,  as  in  Corinth,  were 
from  some  Jewish  syncretistic  group,  does  not  appear  from  this 
Epistle;  although  it  might  not  unreasonably  be  so  concluded  from 
the  references  in  the  Revelation  of  John,  which  next  claims  our 
study. 

THE  REVELATION   OF  JOHN 

Among  the  divergent  views  concerning  the  literary  criticism 
and  interpretation  of  the  Revelation  of  John,  there  is  agreement 
in  general  that  its  aim  is  to  establish  its  readers  in  the  hope  of  the 
consummation  of  the  Kingdom  at  the  coming  in  glory  of  the  vic- 
torious Christ;  and  that  its  occasion  was  the  persecution  of  the 
Church  by  the  opposing  world  empire  of  Rome.  Along  with  this 
external  danger,  there  is  also  recognized  the  danger  within  the 
Church  from  the  presence  of  the  errorists  denounced  in  the  Seven 
Epistles  of  chapters  2  and  3.  As  held  by  Hoennicke,  Jud.  Christm, 
p.  135,  and  as  Bousset  states,  Kommeniar,  p.  278,  their  activity  in 
Ephesus,  Pergamum  and  Thyatira  seems  to  point  to  a  single 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  351 

movement:  'by  the  false  prophets  of  2,  2,  the  Nicolaitans  of  2, 
8,  15,  the  didache  of  Balaam,  2, 14,  the  prophetess  Jezebel,  2,  14, 
who  likewise  teaches  and  deceives  Christ's  servants  to  conmiit 
fornication  and  to  eat  things  sacrificed  to  idols,  the  same  class  is 
probably  intended.'  In  his  view,  however,  these  false  teachers  are 
not  only  not  representatives  of  the  later,  developed  gnostic  sys- 
tems, but  are  also  not  concerned  with  speculation,  as  the  errorists 
in  Jude  and  II  Peter.  To  him,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  leaders  of  a 
libertine  movement  of  heathen  converts  associating  with,  and 
conforming  to,  the  conduct  of  the  surrounding  heathen  society. 
Hoennicke,  p.  136,  refers  their  views  and  conduct  to  syncretistic 
influences,  and  holds  definitely  that  they  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  errors  with  whom  Paul  had  earlier  been  in  conflict. 

We  hold,  however,  with  Bacon,  Introd.,  p.  241  f.,  that  'the  heret- 
ical antagonists  are  of  the  same  type  as  those  antagonized  by 
Paul  in  the  same  region,  Jewish,  theosophical,  antinomian,  but 
now  clearly  differentiated  and  named.  John  confronts  the  same 
heresies  with  the  same  figures.'  As  Bacon  states  that  John  too 
antagonized  an  ascetic  theosophy,  we  understood  from  his  refer- 
ence to  Col.  2,  8-23  that  he  views  the  opponents  in  the  Revelation 
as  also  maintaining  christological  errors.  Moffatt  on  the  other 
hand  considers  that  the  errorists  of  Rev.  2  and  3  '  show  no  definitely 
christological  traits,'  Introd. ^  p.  588;  and  McGiffert  too  states, 
Apos.  Age,  p.  625,  'that  there  is  no  hint  that  they  were  also  docetic 
in  their  view;  their  error  seems  to  have  been  only  practical.' 

But  we  do  not  find  that  this  restriction  of  their  activity  to  error 
in  morality  is  supported  by  the  data  of  the  Seven  Letters  or  by  the 
structure  of  the  Book  as  a  whole.  The  christological  tenets  of  the 
false  teachers  and  definitely  docetism  are  not  in  fact  presented; 
and  this  because  no  direct  delineation  of  their  system  is  given.  It 
can  nevertheless  be  recognized  in  its  essential  outlines,  from  its 
connection  with  the  framework,  interests  and  contents  of  the 
Letters  expressly  concerned  with  the  errorists.  All  the  Letters  are 
dominated  by  a  christological  and  eschatological  interest;  and  in 
the  three  Epistles  in  which  the  errorists  appear,  their  works  are 
specifically  contrasted  with  the  works  of  the  faithful  members  of 
the  Churches;  their  false-apostoHc  teaching  and  ministry,  their 
didache  and  their  false  prophecy  are  likewise  opposed  to  the 
Church's   ApostoUc    tradition,    didache   and    prophecy.      Their 


352    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

attitude  to  the  christological  and  eschatological  affinnations  with 
which  the  Letters  open  and  close,  is  further  illuminated  by  the 
character  and  aims  of  the  features  of  the  salutation  and  Christoph- 
any  in  the  opening  chapter,  from  which  the  self-descriptions  of 
Christ  in  the  Seven  Epistles  are  taken. 

Upon  our  separate  examination  of  the  three  Letters  in  which 
the  errorists  appear,  we  shall  find  that  their  works  issue  from  a 
definite  system  of  teaching.  For,  first,  the  propagators  of  the 
movement  in  Ephesus  claim  to  be  apostles.  The  title  expresses 
their  profession  of  authority  to  present  the  Gospel  in  its  general 
character  and  doctrines.  In  the  statement  that  they  are  found  to 
be  liars  is  expressed  the  decision  that  their  gospel  was  in  opposition 
to  the  historic  witness  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Apostohc  preaching  and 
ministry  concerning  the  person  and  work  of  Christ.  The  same 
decision  appears  in  the  polemic  of  II  Cor.  11:  '  those  superlative 
apostles,  fashioning  themselves  into  apostles  of  Christ,  preach, 
vs.  4,  another  Jesus  whom  we  did  not  preach ;  and  ye  are  receiving  a 
different  spirit,  which  ye  did  not  receive  or  a  different  gospel  which 
ye  did  not  accept,'  cp.  Plmnmer  in  loco.  Next  we  may  notice 
that  the  Ephesians'  'testing'  of  their  claims  is  not  simply  in  regard 
to  their  immoraUty.  That,  in  2,  2  a,  they  are  not  able  to  bear. 
But  the  'test'  vs.  2  b,  is  as  in  II  Cor.  13,  5:  'whether  ye  are  in  the 
faith ' ;  and  as  in  I  John  4,  1-6,  again  in  connection  with  the  person 
of  Christ:  'hereby  know  ye  the  Spirit  of  God:  every  spirit  that 
confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God.'  It  was 
as  the  result  of  this  testing  that  the  false  apostles  were  found  Uars. 
This  term  in  I  John  is  applied  to  false  teaching,  and  not  only  to 
claims  of  gnosis  of  God,  disproved  by  not  keeping  his  command- 
ments, 2,  4,  and  to  claims  to  love  God,  disproved  by  hatred  of  the 
brother;  but  also  to  the  fundamental  lie  in  I  John  2,  21-27,  of 
which  inmiorality  and  hatred  are  the  outcomes:  'who  is  the  liar 
but  he  that  denieth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,'  which  is  appUed  to 
the  many  antichrists,  2, 18  f .,  who  have  separated  from  the  Church. 
Further,  the  opposition  of  the  false  apostles  to  the  Church's 
christology  is  reflected  in  the  reference  to  their  works,  which 
Christ  hates,  in  contrast  to  his  commendation  of  the  Ephesians 
for  their  works,  labor  and  patience.  Bousset  regards  these  Ephe- 
sian  works  as  subdivided  into  the  labor  of  opposing  the  errorists 
and  into  patience  under  persecution.    But  as  he  and  most  of  the 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  353 

commentators  notice  the  parallel  with  I  Thess.  1,  3,  we  may 
rather  find  in  the  threefold  description  a  reference  to  their  Chris- 
tian faith  and  Ufe  in  general,  as  in  the  other  four  Letters  where 
'knowing  their  works'  is  mentioned.  Here  then  'works'  is  used 
not  simply  in  reference  to  the  moral  activities  of  the  Ephesians, 
but  it  describes  as  in  the  Letter  to  Thyatira,  their  Christian  char- 
acter and  hfe  as  expressed  in  works  of  faith,  labor  of  love  and 
patience  of  hope;  and  the  contrasted  hated  works  of  the  false 
apostles  can  therefore  be  judged  to  be  the  outward  manifestation 
of  their  opposition  to  these  fundamental  elements  of  the  life  of 
faith  in  Christ. 

In  the  Letter  to  Pergamum,  these  Nicolaitan  false  apostles  are 
found  to  have  a  definite  system  of  teaching :  the  didache  of  Balaam. 
Its  characterizing  feature  is  the  practical  immorality  of  eating 
heathen  sacrificial  food  and  fornication;  and  very  generally,  as 
stated,  this  is  regarded  as  laxity  due  to  heathen  association,  and 
not  as  a  freedom  based  on  speculative  principles.  The  prominence 
given  in  the  Letters  to  Pergamum  and  Thyatira  to  this  feature  of 
inamorality  is  not  however  sufficient  to  justify  the  view  that  the 
Nicolaitans  were  simply  libertines.  The  injunction,  I  John  5,  21, 
to  'guard  yourselves  from  idols,'  was  found  to  point  to  a  similar 
association  with  the  inunorality  connected  with  heathen  feasts; 
and  as  being  the  concluding  injunction  of  that  Epistle,  it  also 
emphasized  such  association  as  a  characteristic  of  the  errorists 
denounced  in  I  John  for  their  denials  of  the  Church's  christology 
and  moral  teaching.  In  Jude  4  and  II  Pet.  2,  1  f.  libertinism  is 
likewise  asserted  as  a  characterizing  mark  of  the  errorists;  but  it  is 
there  linked  with  their  denial  of  the  Lord  who  bought  them,  and 
definitely  as  in  Pergamum  that  they  followed  the  error  of  Balaam. 
When  moreover  as  by  Bousset  these  Seven  Epistles  are  dated  later 
than  the  succeeding  chapters  and  therefore  represent  a  later 
development,  it  is  to  be  recalled  that  whatever  their  date  they 
repeat  Paul's  description  of  gnosticizing  errorists  as  tj^pified  by  the 
idolatry  and  fornication  into  which  Balaam  led  Israel  in  the 
wilderness,  I  Cor.  10,  6-8.  When  further  their  teaching  is  entitled 
a  didache,  with  which  may  be  compared  in  II  Pet.  2,  15  the  686s  of 
Balaam  opposed  to  the  et^eta  656s,  we  note  that  this  term  in 
II  John  refers  to  the  general  content  of  Christian  instruction.  For 
the  many  deceivers  and  antichrists  of  vs.  7  who  have  not  the 


354    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

didache  of  Christ,  vss.  9,  10,  are  those  who  confess  not  that  Jesus 
Christ  cometh  in  the  flesh,  and  those  whose  evil  works,  vs.  11,  are 
in  vss.  4-6  in  disobedience  to  the  commandment  of  love,  heard 
from  the  beginning.  And  in  I  John  2,  27  the  anointing  from  Christ 
which  'teaches  you  concerning  all  things'  is  contrasted  with  the 
teaching  and  lie  of  the  deceivers  and  antichrists  of  2,  18  ff. 

In  the  Letter  to  Pergamum,  as  a  contrasting  introduction  to 
the  didache  of  Balaam,  is  given  a  description  of  the  teaching  re- 
ceived by  the  faithful,  and  it  is  in  general  doctrinal  terms:  they 
hold  fast  *  my  name,*  and  even  under  persecution  have  not  denied 
'my  faith.'  Another  indication  of  the  general  range  of  the  false 
didache  is  that  Christ  will  war  against  it  with  the  sword  of  his 
mouth,  2,  16.12,  the  word  of  God,  19,  13-15,  the  whole  revelation 
of  God  in  Christ's  person,  teaching  and  work.  The  concluding 
promise  to  the  victor  is  recognized  to  be  directly  related  to  the 
didache  of  the  errorists,  in  so  far  as  there  appears  to  be  an  allusion 
to  the  contrast  between  idol  food  and  the  hidden  manna.^^  The 
well-known  obscurity  of  the  second  part  of  the  promised  blessing 
seems  to  be  best  illuminated  by  the  theory  advocated  by  Bousset 
and  Swete,  of  a  similar  antithetical  reference  to  a  gnostic  charm 
or  amulet  with  a  potent  magical  formula.  In  this  case,  with 
Swete,  'the  white  stone  is  the  pledge  of  the  Divine  favour  which 
carries  with  it  such  intimate  knowledge  of  God  and  Christ  as  only 
the  possessor  can  comprehend.'  It  would  thus,  as  I  Cor.  13,  12 
and  parallels,  be  the  promise  of  knowing  as  we  are  known  of  God ; 
of  vision  face  to  face.  Where  this  interpretation  is  adopted,  the 
didache  of  the  Nicolaitans  is  seen  finally  to  be  not  merely  immoral 
teaching  permitting  heathen  laxity  of  conduct,  but  a  libertinism 
on  antinomian  principles  of  freedom  by  gnosis. 

In  the  Letter  to  Thyatira  the  preceding  indications  of  the  defi- 
nite system  of  error  opposed,  receive  additional  support.  Along 
with  the  false  apostles  of  Ephesus  rejecting  the  Church's  tradition 
and  fellowship,  and  with  the  libertine  didache  at  Pergamum 

•'Swete's  interpretation  of  the  hidden  manna  as  'the  life-sustaining 
power  of  the  Sacred  Humanity  now  "hid  with  Christ  in  God"  of  which  the 
faithful  find  a  foretaste  in  the  Eucharist,'  recalls  suggestively  Paul's  polemic 
against  the  pneumatics  of  Corinth,  I  Cor.  10,  14  flf.,  in  which  he  contrasts 
communion  with  demons  in  the  heathen  sacrifices,  vs.  20,  with  communion 
with  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  in  vs.  16. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  355 

probably  boasting  in  vs.  18  of  a  spurious  gnosis,  are  found  here  in 
Thyatira  the  false  prophets  of  the  system.  The  conspicuous  rep- 
resentative from  the  class  of  women  converts  of  gnostic  intruders 
which  were  found  in  the  Pauline  Epistles,  is  appropriately  styled 
Jezebel.  As  a  prophetess  she  of  course  claims  special  gifts  of 
gnosis  and  revelation;  of  power  and  of  independence,  in  her  in- 
dividual gifts,  of  all  objective  forms  of  authority.  Her  didache 
is  described  in  the  same  terms  as  that  of  the  Nicolaitans:  fornica- 
tion and  eating  of  heathen  sacrifice  food;  and  its  basis  on  a  general 
doctrinal  system  appears  in  vs.  24.  There,  the  boast  of  knowing 
the  depths  of  Satan  is  not  as  Bousset  holds,  in  seeking  to  mini- 
mize its  significance,  a  mere  excuse  in  justification  of  association 
with  heathen  immorality.  It  was  a  claim  of  gnosis  of  the  deep 
things,  and  presumably  as  in  I  Cor.  2,  10  of  the  deep  things  of 
God.  This  in  I  Cor.  2,  6-16  includes  gnosis  of  the  fundamental 
truth  of  God  revealing  himself,  his  eternal  purpose  and  his  method 
of  salvation  in  his  incarnate  and  redeeming  Son.  And  in  an- 
tithesis to  it,  the  Nicolaitan  false  prophecy  is  denounced  as  being 
in  reality  a  gnosis  of  the  deep  things  not  of  God  but  of  Satan. 

We  might  also  regard  the  promise  in  2,  27  of  rule  over  the  op- 
posing nations  to  be,  as  perhaps  all  the  promises  to  the  victors, 
in  antithesis  to  the  boast  of  the  opponents;  and  here,  of  their 
boast  of  already  reigning  in  a  kingdom  already  present  without  a 
Parousia  of  the  heavenly  Christ.  The  faithful  on  the  contrary 
are  assured  of  the  coming  fulfillment  of  this  reign  with  Christ  in 
his  messianic  Kingdom,  cp.  Psalm  2,  8  f.,  when  as  Bede  interprets, 
Christ  appears  to  them  as  the  star  of  dawning  of  the  eternal  Day. 
Without  discussing  the  possibility  of  further  allusions  to  these  error- 
ists  in  the  remaining  Letters,^^  we  may  recall  that  the  references 
to  the  false  apostles  with  the  didache  of  Balaam  as  false  prophets 
with  Satanic  gnosis,  are  to  be  read  in  all  the  Seven  Churches. 
These  references,  moreover,  have  been  found  to  involve  far  more 
than  immorality  due  to  heathen  associations.  And  their  indica- 
tion of  a  definite  system  of  libertinism  based  on  false  gnosis, 
prophecy  and  claims  of  apostolic  authority  would  in  general,  as 

^*  To  Bousset,  p.  279,  'it  seems  that  in  Sardis  this  movement  although  not 
named,  had  attained  great  influence.'  If  this  conclusion  is  justified  as  ac- 
counting for  the  conditions  in  Sardis,  it  could  equally  account  for  the  situation 
in  Laodicea;  cp.  Lightfoot,  Colossians,  p.  44. 


356    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

in  I  John,  point  also  to  opposition  not  only  to  Apostolic  moral 
teaching  and  fellowship,  but  also  to  the  Apostolic  witness  to  the 
Person,  Work  and  Parousia  of  Christ. 

This  general  presentation  finds  support  in  various  features  of 
the  structure  of  the  Seven  Letters  and  in  their  relation  to  the 
structure  of  the  whole  Apocalypse.  In  all  the  Letters  emphasis 
on  christology  and  eschatology  is  an  integral  feature.  Each  be- 
gins with  an  affirmation  concerning  the  Person  of  Christ;  and 
each  concludes  with  a  promise  of  blessing  at  his  Parousia.  The 
obvious  suggestion  that  these  promises  are  the  natural  encourage- 
ments in  a  situation  of  external  persecution,  does  not  account 
for  all  the  facts.  In  possibly  one-half  of  the  Letters,  there  is  no 
reference  to  external  persecution.  And  in  the  three  Letters  in 
which  the  errorists  are  denounced,  the  eschatological  promises 
are  related  to  the  internal  dangers  of  their  propaganda.  To  the 
Nicolaitan  feeding  on  heathen  sacrificial  food  is  opposed  in  the 
Letter  to  Ephesus,  the  final  blessing  of  feeding  on  the  Tree  of 
Life,  and  in  the  Letter  to  Pergamum,  feeding  on  the  Hidden 
Manna.  Against  the  false  prophecy  in  Thyatira  boasting,  as 
may  be  concluded  from  other  New  Testament  descriptions  of  it, 
that  by  its  gnosis  it  already  enjoys  the  spiritual  perfecting  and 
power  which  Apostolic  Christians  awaited  at  the  parousia,  and 
that  it  was  thereby  superior  to  the  didache  and  to  the  hope  of  a 
consummated  Kingdom,  I  Cor.  4,  8  ff.,  is  likewise  emphasized  the 
assurance  of  a  still  future  victory  and  reign  of  the  saints  in  the 
messianic  Kingdom  of  glory.  Thus  intimately  related  to  the 
principles  of  the  errorists,  the  aim  of  the  concluding  promises  in 
these  three  Letters  and  in  the  others  as  well,  and  of  the  whole 
revelation,  would  be  the  establishment  of  the  readers  in  the 
Christian  hope,  both  on  the  occasion  of  their  need  of  it  as  a  support 
in  external  trials,  and  also  of  denials  of  it  in  the  internal  false 
teachings. 

On  the  view  of  the  structure  of  the  three  Letters  as  unified  by 
the  central  topic  of  internal  dangers,  the  opening  description  of 
the  glorified  Christ  would  also  be  related  to  Nicolaitan  perversions 
or  denials  of  the  primitive  Apostolic  christology.  In  Pergamum 
Christ  will  war  against  the  Nicolaitans  with  the  sword  of  his 
mouth,  as  whose  possessor  he  describes  himself  in  the  opening 
statement.    The  judgments  on  Jezebel  and  her  followers  in  Thya- 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  357 

tira  proceed  from  the  Christ  with  the  flaming  eyes  and  feet  of  his 
self -description.  In  both  cases  the  emphasis  on  his  coming  judg- 
ments is  the  appropriate  warning  against  those  whose  immoraUty 
and  didache  rests  on  a  prophetic  gnosis  which  denies  the  primitive 
revelation,  Parousia  and  judgment.  To  the  Church  of  Ephesus 
the  self -description  of  Christ  is  an  assurance  for  the  faithful  of  his 
immediate  presence,  rule  and  protection.  And  in  connection 
with  the  succeeding  interwoven  references  to  Nicolaitan  false 
apostles,  it  would  serve  to  guard  against  any  form  of  false  christol- 
ogy  denying  his  sole  mediatorship  and  the  unity  of  all  believers 
in  a  common  direct  fellowship  with  their  exalted  Lord.  Christolog- 
ical  denials  are  also  indicated  in  the  body  of  the  several  Letters, 
when  in  contrast  to  the  teaching  of  the  errorists,  the  faithful  are 
commended  for  holding  and  keeping  my  name,  my  word;  not 
denying  my  name,  my  faith;  keeping  my  word  of  patience,  having 
patience  and  enduring  because  of  my  name:  his  self -revelation 
in  his  person,  teaching  and  whole  work  of  redemption. 

Special  features  of  this  self-revelation  directly  related  to  the 
Church's  situation  amid  dangers  from  without  and  within,  serve 
as  introductions  to  the  several  Letters.  Since,  however,  they  are 
selections  from  the  presentation  of  Christ  in  the  salutation  and 
Christophany  of  the  first  chapter,  we  can  there  find  the  full  positive 
christological  affirmations,  which  whether  so  intended  or  not, 
do  in  fact  confute  the  perverted  christology  of  the  gnosticizing 
errorists,  which  has  been  found  emerging  with  increasing  distinct- 
ness in  the  earlier  New  Testament  writings.  It  is  unquestionably 
true  that  in  the  opening  chapter  we  have  the  constant  Apostolic 
christology,  with  which  any  special  situation  could  be  met.  It 
is  the  abiding  word  of  God  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  1,  3.  The 
readers  are  to  hold  fast  what  they  already  have,  3,  11.  But  the 
employment  of  separate  features  of  it  in  the  several  Letters  to 
controvert  opposing  teaching  or  conduct  issuing  from  it,  suggests 
the  same  intention  in  the  formulation,  special  emphases  and 
amplifications  in  this  presentation  of  Christ  in  the  introductory 
chapter  and  vision. 

In  the  salutation  of  grace  from  the  Father,  he  is  presented  in  a 
form  of  the  Jehovah  name,  not  only  as  '  he  who  is  and  was,'  but 
also  as  'he  that  cometh.'  And  that  this  is  not  intended  as  an 
equivalent  of  'he  that  shall  be,'  is  seen  in  11,  17  f.  where  it  is  re- 


358    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

produced  as  a  coming  to  consummate  the  Kingdom  with  judg- 
ments and  with  rewards  to  his  servants.  In  addition  to  this 
significant  emphasis  on  eschatology,  the  opening  salutation  in- 
cludes for  the  only  time  in  the  New  Testament,  grace  from  the 
sevenfold  Spirit,  whose  gifts  of  the  spirit  of  hfe,  illumination  and 
power  are  thus  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful. 
The  interest  of  this  addition  could  be  related  to  its  significance  in 
the  similar  threefold  closing  exhortation  at  the  conclusion  of 
Paul's  polemic  against  the  pneumatics  in  Corinth,  II  Cor.  13, 
13. 

The  usual  'grace  from  Jesus  Christ'  is  also  amplified.  In  II  John 
3,  the  addition  to  it  of  Hhe  Son  of  the  Father  in  truth  and  love' 
is  evidently  in  view  of  the  denials  by  the  antichrists  in  vss.  4-11. 
The  same  interest  would  be  served  by  the  development  of  the 
formula  in  Rev.  1.  For  with  Hort  and  others,  the  threefold  de- 
scription in  vs.  5a  reaffirms  Christ  as  the  faithful  witness,  the 
complete  and  abiding  revelation  of  God,  in  his  earthly  ministry; 
his  resurrection  as  the  first  bom  of  the  dead;  and  the  lordship  of 
his  heavenly  exaltation  over  the  kings  of  the  earth.  To  this 
threefold  description  of  the  Christ,  human  and  divine,  corresponds 
the  doxology  for  our  experience  of  redemption  by  him,  who  in  his 
earthly  life,  as  the  Witness  in  his  revelation  of  the  Father,  loved 
us.^^  This  is  also  John's  concluding  summary  of  Christ's  minis- 
try in  the  Gospel,  13,  1:  Jesus  knowing  that  his  hour  was  come 
that  he  should  depart  out  of  this  world  unto  the  Father,  having 
loved  his  own  that  were  in  the  world,  he  loved  them  unto  the 
end.  Next,  as  the  first  bom  from  the  dead,  5  a,  he  washed  us  from 
our  sins;  and  'by  his  blood,'  as  repeatedly  in  the  Apocalypse,  re- 
calling the  emphasis  in  I  John  upon  Christ's  redemptive  death, 
in  the  polemic  against  the  errorists.  Lastly,  in  Christ's  heavenly 
lordship,  5  a,  cp.  Ephes.  1,  21.22,  he  has  made  us  /a  kingdom, 
priests  unto  God':  'the  Church  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ 
constituted  a  holy  nation,  a  new  theocracy, '  Swete,  cp.  I  Pet.  2, 
5  ff.  and  parallels.    To  these  two  threefold  affirmations  of  Jesus 

"  This  reading  iiy airrjaavri  of  P,  Primasius,  etc.,  is  supported  by  the  aorist 
forms  in  the  coordinate  statements.  Swete's  preference  for  the  present  par- 
ticiple is  based  on  his  view  that  'loosed/  etc.,  is  subordinate  as  a  crucial  com- 
pleted instance  of  the  abiding  love,  and  also  on  his  interpretation  of  the  wit- 
ness of  5a  as  that  given  in  the  Apocalypse. 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  359 

Christ's  ^^  revelation,  redemption,  lordship  in  the  Church  as  a 
royal  priesthood,  is  added  the  assurance:  behold  he  cometh  with 
the  clouds,  to  judgment. 

In  the  succeeding  introductory  vision  of  the  heavenly  Christ, 
1,  12  ff.,  the  christological  and  eschatological  emphases  in  the 
salutation  appear  in  the  forms  of  apocalyptical  symbolism,  and 
as  controlled  by  the  primary  interest  in  the  coming  of  vs.  7.  We 
have  Christ's  direct  union  with  his  Church  and  his  life  within  it 
in  the  vision  of  his  presence  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  lampstands; 
and  his  protecting  and  guiding  of  the  seven  stars,  the  church- 
angels,  held  in  his  right  hand.  He  himself  is  beheld  in  the  heavenly 
transfiguration  of  his  real  humanity:  as  'like  unto  a  son  of  man.'  ^^ 
His  heavenly  priesthood  is  symboUzed  in  his  garment;  his  lord- 
ship, majesty,  purity  and  power  flashes  from  the  head  and  hair 
white  as  wool  and  as  snow,  and  from  his  face  and  countenance 

'8  Since  this  title  appears  only  here  in  the  Apocalypse,  Swete  observes  that 
as  elsewhere  the  title  Jesus  stands  alone,  'it  may  be  the  purpose  of  the  writer 
to  emphasize  in  this  way  the  humanity  of  the  glorified  Christ  and  his  identity 
with  the  historical  Person  who  lived  and  suffered.* 

*'  The  possibility  that  this  'likeness'  is  not  a  mere  form  of  literary  descrip- 
tion but  a  significant  doctrinal  phrase  is  suggested  by  two  facts.  "0/xotos  in 
ordinary  description  is  always  used  in  the  Apocalypse  with  the  dative;  but 
here  and  in  14,  14  alone,  where  it  is  used  with  the  accusative,  it  is  in  the  same 
phrase  6fJLOiOP  vlov  avdpojwov.  Swete  suggests  that  the  ungrammatical  form 
is  due  to  the  translation  of  Dan.  7,  13  which  the  writer  employed.  This  could 
be  a  primitive  collection  of  Old  Testament  messianic  Testimonia,  among 
which,  as  in  Mtw.  24,  30  and  parallels,  this  Daniel  passage  would  be  included. 
The  other  fact  is  that  allusions  to  this  phrase  are  found  in  several  passages 
defending  the  reality  of  the  incarnation  and  passion  of  Christ,  and  from  the 
contexts  presumably  against  docetic  denials.  In  Hbws,  2,  14  ff.  he  shared 
with  men  blood  and  flesh  and  death,  because,  vs.  17,  it  behooved  him  Kara 
wdvTa  rots  d8eX<poTs  OfxoLOjdrjvai.  The  recapitulation  of  this  in  4, 15  speaks 
of  his  temptation  in  all  points  Kad*  6iiOL6Tr)Ta  without  sins,  where  with  many 
commentators  from  Chrysostom  to  A.  Seeberg,  Hb.  bf.,  p.  50,  cp.  Westcott 
in  loco,  the  likeness  is  not  between  our  temptation  and  that  of  Christ,  but  is 
the  Ukeness  of  Christ  without  sin,  to  ourselves.  The  incarnation  and  re- 
demptive death  are  again  expressed  in  Rom.  8,  3  in  terms  of  'likeness':  God 
sent  his  own  Son  in  o/xoicb/iart  aapKds  d/xaprlas  /cat  irepl  anaprias; 
and  similarly,  PhiUppians  2,  8,  he  became  €V  bjioiiiiiaTi.  avdp<j3Tr(t}V,  and 
became  obedient  to  the  death  of  the  cross  when  he  was  found  in  (TXVP-O-Ti 
6)s  avdpo)Tros. 


360    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

shining  as  the  sun  in  his  strength.  But  most  definitely  he  appears 
as  the  coming  Judge  of  vs.  7.  'The  terribleness  of  the  voice  is 
that  with  which  he  will  rebuke  his  foes  within  the  Church  and 
without/  Trench,  p.  60.  The  flaming  eyes  penetrate  in  judgment, 
the  feet  glowing  like  metal  in  the  crucible,  will  execute  the  judg- 
ment, 19,  15,  whose  principles  are  the  word  of  God  proceeding 
like  a  sword  out  of  his  mouth. 

In  his  own  first  words  are  bound  together  the  topics  of  both  the 
salutation  and  the  Christophany.  The  divine  nature  of  Jesus 
the  Christ  is  expressed  in  the  assertions,  I  am  the  first  and  the 
last,  and  the  Living  One.  The  real  humanity,  death  and  resurrec- 
tion of  this  eternal  Living  one  involves  the  reality  of  his  abiding 
union  with  Jesus  incarnate,  dying  and  rising  again,  and  points 
to  the  redeeming  power  of  such  a  death  and  resurrection.  His 
possession  of  the  keys  of  death  and  Hades  sjTnbolizes  succinctly 
his  sovereignty  in  the  coming  judgment.  And  through  the  Spirit 
in  his  Apostle  he  reveals  the  mystery  of  the  lampstands  and 
stars  to  be  his  abiding  presence  and  support  of  his  Church  amid 
the  dangers  from  without  and  from  within. 

To  this  presentation  of  the  Person  and  office  of  the  Christ,  the 
Seven  Churches  are  recalled  for  encouragement,  guidance  and 
warning  by  the  introductory  self-descriptions  in  each  Letter,  of 
the  heavenly  Lord.  Similarly  in  each  Letter,  the  concluding 
promises  of  the  blessings  to  be  imparted  at  his  Parousia  are  as- 
sured to  the  victors  in  the  succeeding  visions  of  the  conflicts  and 
triumphs  of  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ  until  its 
consummation  is  realized  in  the  final  vision.  While  these  promises 
are  a  direct  encouragement  of  hope  to  sustain  the  readers  amid 
external  dangers,  both  the  promises  of  the  Letters  and  their 
prophetic  revelation  of  the  glorified  Christ  would  also  establish 
the  faithful  against  the  internal  danger  of  denials  of  the  Apostolic 
Gospel  by  the  intruding  errorists. 

A  special  feature  of  error  in  the  church  circles  addressed  is  often 
found  in  19,  10  and  22,  8  f.,  where  both  Bousset  and  Swete  observe 
a  tendency  to  angel  worship,  as  in  Col.  2,  18.  In  such  case,  any 
related  theory  of  special  angelic  revelation  higher  than  that  of  the 
Gospel  and  prophecy  of  the  Church  is  repelled  by  the  angel's 
repeated  rejection  of  worship  and  by  his  repeated  assurance  that  he 
is  but  fellow  servant  with  the  New  Testament  prophets  and  with 


THE  INTRUDING  GNOSTIC  TEACHINGS  361 

the  brethren  possessing  in  the  witness  of  Jesus,  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit.  Any  possible  errors  concerning  angeUc  mediators  is  met 
throughout  the  Revelation  by  the  constant  representations  of 
angelic  subjection  to  Christ  and  his  service,  and  also  by  the  dox- 
ologies,  in  which  angels  join  in  5,  11,  for  the  sole  lordship  of  Christ 
and  his  mediation  in  revelation  and  redemption.  If  besides,  any 
duaUstic  theories  of  creation  were  taught  by  the  errorists,  they 
too  are  repelled,  whether  intentionally  or  not,  both  by  the 
direct  ascription  of  creation  to  God,  e.  g.,  4,  11;  10,  6,  and 
also  by  the  abiding  relation  of  creation  with  God,  if  with  Swete 
the  symboUsm  of  the  four  living  creatures  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne  4,  6,  etc.,  represent  creation  and  divine  immanence  in 
nature. 

Apart  however  from  these  two  possible  special  references,  we 
have  found  as  the  basis  for  the  establishment  of  the  readers  of  the 
Revelation,  an  exceptionally  full  statement  of  eschatological  hope 
resting  on  the  historic  faith  in  the  finality  and  completeness  of  the 
divine  revelation  in  the  work  of  Christ  really  united  with  the 
human  Jesus  throughout  his  life,  ministry,  redemptive  death, 
resurrection  and  exaltation.  It  is  a  hope  and  faith  built  up  in  the 
Christian  life  of  fellowship  in  the  Kingdom,  of  whose  assured 
inheritance  the  universal  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  a  foretaste  and 
earnest.  Further  in  the  three  Epistles  in  which  the  errorists  are 
mentioned,  these  christological  re-affirmations  are  so  interwoven 
with  the  denunciations  of  the  false  teachers  as  to  justify  the  con- 
clusion that  their  claim  to  possess  prophetic  gifts  of  the  Spirit 
and  antinomian  emancipation,  and  to  be  apostles  with  a  revelation 
superior  to  the  ApostoUc  Gospel  and  with  an  authority  of  pseudo- 
gnosis  disrupting  the  fellowship  of  Christ's  Church,  involved 
also  their  denial  of  its  fundamental  christology,  which  is  re- 
asserted in  the  introductory  chapter  and  brought  into  special  re- 
lation to  the  conditions  and  dangers  of  each  of  the  Seven  Churches. 
This  result,  that  the  outstanding  features  of  the  Nicolaitan  error 
are  practically  identical  with  those  we  have  recognized  in  the 
gnosticizing  system  opposed  in  other  New  Testament  Books, 
would  accord  with  either  of  the  dates  assigned  to  the  Revelation. 
On  the  now  usually  accepted  date  under  Domitian,  the  false 
teachers  in  the  Apocalypse  are  recognized  to  be  of  the  same  move- 
ment as  that  denounced  in  I  and  II  John,  of  the  same  period.    If  an 


362    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

earlier  date  is  assigned,  e.  g.,  68  or  75  a.  d.,  as  still  finds  some  advo- 
cates, we  have  found  in  these  studies,  cp.  also  Liitgert  op.  cit. 
p.  47,  the  activity  of  such  a  propaganda  as  in  I  John  and  Revela- 
tion, in  the  Pauline  Epistles  before  these  dates  and  in  other 
Epistles  frequently  assigned  to  the  eighth  decade. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   ATTACK   AND    REPULSE   OF   THE   GNOSTIC    MOVEMENT   IN   THE 
NEW  TESTAMENT 

From  the  preceding  studies  in  separate  Epistles  or  in  groups  of 
them,  of  a  gnosticizing  movement,  we  reach  the  conclusion  that 
the  results  converge  to  the  proof  of  the  activity  of  that  movement 
beginning  in  the  PauUne  churches  from  about  50  a.  d.  onwards. 
Briefly  summarizing  the  recurring  general  features  of  it,  so  far  as 
we  have  been  able  to  determine  them,  we  submit  that  although  its 
speculative  bases  were  only  gradually  recognized  and  exposed,  it 
began  with  a  claim  of  a  superior  prophetic  gift  of  gnosis,  illumina- 
tion and  power.  The  direct  and  earliest  outcome  of  this  claim  of 
gnosis,  which  was  united  with  a  speculative  theory  of  the  essential 
evil  of  the  material  universe,  was  a  denial  of  Christian  eschatology : 
the  Parousia  of  Christ,  general  resurrection  and  judgment,  and  a 
consummation  of  the  Kingdom.  On  the  contrary,  without  a 
Parousia,  the  errorists  had  already  entered  on  the  resurrection  life; 
for  them  the  Day  of  the  Lord  was  already  come,  the  resurrection 
already  has  taken  place;  and  in  their  possession  of  the  Spirit  and 
his  gifts,  they  were  already  'satisfied  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  con- 
summate Messianic  blessedness. ' 

The  assertion  of  such  claim  of  superior  pneumatic  life  and  the 
resulting  denial  of  the  hope  which  dominated  the  Christian  life, 
inevitably  involved  divisions  subversive  of  the  Christian  fellowship 
and  of  the  unity  of  the  Church.  These  divisions  were  fostered  by 
another  characteristic  cfiaim  of  gnosis:  the  gift  of  freedom  emanci- 
pating them  from  all  external  authority.  In  the  sphere  of  morals 
this  freedom  was  manifested  in  antinomian  libertinism.  In  social 
relations  it  involved  them  in  disparagement  or  repudiation  of  the 
institution  of  marriage;  and  it  would  also  tend  to  raise  them  above 
the  institutions  and  authority  of  the  State.  In  any  case  their 
antinomian  freedom  would  cause  the  name,  the  word,  the  doctrine 
of  God  and  the  way  of  truth  to  be  blasphemed.  Within  the 
Church,  their  perversion  of  freedom  was  seen  in  their  repudiation 
of  Apostohc  authority  and  Church  discipline;  and  most  important, 


364    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

in  the  accompanying  independence  of  the  Apostolic  tradition 
of  the  GospeL  This  involved  not  only  rejection  of  the  hope  of  the 
Parousia  and  its  blessings,  but  a  perversion  of  the  Church's 
faith  in  Christ  himself.  Their  teaching  concerning  him,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  Church's  tradition,  was  a  tradition  of  men,  a  philos- 
ophy which  was  empty  deceit '  opposed  to  the  word  of  truth  of  the 
Gospel  and  to  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  gnosis  hid  in  Christ, ' 
Abbott  on  Col.  2,  8;  and  corresponding  to  the  gnosis  falsely  so 
called,  inlTim.  6,  20. 

According  to  the  New  Testament  method  of  polemic  against  it, 
the  speculative  basis  of  this  system  is  nowhere  presented  and  dis- 
cussed in  its  principles.  We  have  however  recognized  from  the 
warnings  which  are  concerned  with  its  consequences  for  Christian 
doctrine  that  it  included  the  theory  of  duaUstic  opposition  of 
spirit  and  created  matter;  and  on  this  principle,  h*ad  to  explain 
away  by  docetic  theories  the  reality  of  the  incarnation  of  the 
heavenly  Christ,  of  his  passion  and  of  his  resurrection  as  a  first- 
fruits  of  a  general  resurrection  in  glorified  bodies.  On  such  a 
theory  there  was  no  place  for  the  doctrine  of  redemption  through 
the  death  of  Christ.  Its  own  theory  of  redemption  is,  again,  not 
presented  formally  in  its  principles  and  method,  but  only  as  a 
contradiction  of  the  accepted  Gospel  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins, 
and  of  the  direct  immediate  consciousness  and  personal  experience 
of  redemption  in  his  death  and  resurrection.  In  general  the  al- 
lusions to  the  opposing  system  of  redemption  indicate  that  it  was 
by  means  of  gnosis,  possession  of  the  Spirit  and  his  gifts  of  visions 
and  revelations,  and  by  ascent  to  perfection  through  angeUc  media- 
tors.* 

In  all  these  points  of  fundamental  faith  and  hope  of  a  life  in 
love  fulfilling  all  moral  law,  and  of  fellowship  and  brotherhood,  the 
system  of  error  was  totally  subversive  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
Its  repulse  was  therefore  one  of  the  most  vital  tasks  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Age;  and  with  the  polemic  and  defense  against  it,  we  have 

*  Bousset,  op.  cU.,  p.  276,  concludes  his  chapter  of  discussion  of  the  form  of 
the  gnostic  Redeemer  with  the  statement:  'The  redemption  mj^th  or  myths 
of  the  gnostic  religion  are  not  first  derived  from  the  circle  of  ideas  of  the 
Christian  religion,  but  were  previously  existent  and  were  only  artificially 
combined  with  this  circle  of  ideas;  and  in  gnosticism,  alien  mjrthical  figui 
of  a  redeemer  were  identified  with  the  figure  of  Christ  in  the  way  of  a  supple-! 
ment  and  artificially.' 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  365 

found  the  New  Testament  Epistles  to  be  concerned  in  larger 
measure  than  is  ordinarily  recognized.     There  is  still  a  general 
disposition  to  restrict  its  propaganda  to  the  close  of  the  Apostolic 
Age;  or  to  interpret  its  earlier  appearances  as  due  to  local  influ- 
ences, and  as  exhibiting  only  a  semi-gnosticizing  teaching  which 
was  to  be  developed  into  the  great  gnostic  systems  of  the  second 
century.^   Among  the  reasons  for  this  attitude  was  at  first  the  fact 
that  the  Tubingen  criticism  emphasizing  the  gnostic  references  in 
several  Epistles,  argued  that  these  references  were  to  second- 
century  systems,  and  thus  assigned  the  same  date  for  such  Epis- 
tles.   The  usual  Une  of  defense  of  their  genuineness  was  therefore 
to  minimize  the  gnostic  features  and  to  show  that  the  remaining 
features  do  not  correspond  to  any  definite  second-century  system, 
and  especially  not  to  the  speculative  constructions  of  any  of  them. 
Another  objection  to  the  presence  of  a  gnostic  movement  within 
the  PauUne  churches  from  50  a.  d.  onwards,  is  that  these  churches 
were  only  founded  in  the  sixth  decade,  and  therefore  the  five  to  ten 
years  between  their  founding  and  the  Epistles  addressed  to  them 
was  too  short  a  period  for  the  appearance  among  them  of  so  defi- 
nite and  widespread  a  perversion  of  the  Gospel  as  we  have  found  to 
be  indicated  in  these  Epistles.     This  objection  loses  its  force, 
when  it  is  recalled  that  the  error  opposed  is  not  viewed  as  the  false 
development  of  Christian  fife  and  teaching  from  within  the  Church, 
but  as  propaganda  of  perversion  intruding  from  without.    This 
view  definitely  involves  the  activity  of  one  or  more  groups  of 
syncretistic  gnostic  teachers  who  have  in  some  way  been  at- 
tracted to  the  Gospel.    The  existence  of  such  gnostic  movements 
before  the  Pauline  mission  is  now  fully  recognized.^    And  the 

*  E.  De  Faye,  Introduction  d  V Etude  du  Gnosticisme,  p.  140:  Le  gnosticisme 
fermente  d6j^,  dans  I'ombre,  au  si6cle  apostolique.  C'est  la  p^riode  obscure 
oii  s'^laborent  les  di verses  tendances  qui  donneront  naissance  aux  grandes 
6cole8  du  II®  siecle. 

»W.  Kohler,  Die  Gnosis,  p.  12:  'The  existence  of  pre-Christian  gnostic 
congregations,  i.  e.,  religious  communities  in  which  gnosis  was  the  central 
idea,  cannot  be  contested.'  Cp.  Bousset,  Hauptprohleme  der  Gnosis,  p.  5  S. 
Lake,  Earlier  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  p.  46:  'Gnostic  ideas  are  earlier,  not  later, 
than  Christianity.'  Knopf,  Die  Brief e  Petri  und  Judd,  p.  339:  'Gnosis  was  a 
great  danger  for  the  churches  in  the  second  generation;  on  certain  points  al- 
ready in  the  first  generation.'  Similarly  Moffatt,  Introd.,  p.  153  f.,  as  quoted 
on  p.  290. 


366    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

present  interest  in  investigation  both  of  the  beginnings  of  gnosti- 
cism and  of  the  great  systems  of  the  second  century  promise  to 
contribute  materially  to  our  understanding  of  the  character, 
methods  and  influence  of  the  movement  in  its  relations  with 
Christianity  in  the  AgostoUc  Age.  We  have,  however,  restricted 
our  attention  to  the  evidence  from  the  New  Testament  for  its 
activity  within  the  Church;  and  will  proceed  to  consider  the 
possible  lines  of  its  approach  and  of  its  intrusion  into  the  Church 
at  the  early  period,  and  the  ApostoUc  method  of  meeting  it,  which 
will  at  the  same  time  reflect  the  method  of  its  propaganda. 

1.   ITS  PROVENANCE  AND  ADVANCE  INTO   THE   CHURCH 

We  found  in  the  Pauline  Epistles  that  the  intruders  were  Jews, 
but  not  Judaizers.  They  boast  in  Corinth  of  their  Jewish  descent 
and  privileges,  inculcate  some  Jewish  ceremonial-  practices  in 
Colossse,  and  in  the  Pastorals  they  employ  Jewish  myths.  But 
their  continued  successful  propaganda  among  Gentile  Christians 
would  inevitably  lead  to  the  prevailingly  Gentile  character  of  the 
later  gnosticism;  yet  as  Ltitgert  repeats  from  Zahn,  the  older  the 
gnosis,  the  more  Jewish  it  is.^  Such  a  Jewish  movement  in  the 
New  Testament  age  posits  of  course  the  existence  of  other  Jewish 
sects  in  addition  to  the  famihar  divisions  of  Judaism  by  Josephus 
into  the  parties  of  Pharisees,  Sadducees  and  Essenes.  And  as  this 
is  fully  recognized  it  will  be  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to  refer  to  the 
conclusions  of  a  few  special  investigations  as  to  the  existence  and 
definite  character  of  such  a  Jewish  sect  as  we  have  found  implied  in 
the  New  Testament  Epistles. 

Hoennicke,  Jvd.  Christm.,  p.  33  ff.,  conveniently  summarizes  the 
occasion  of  the  rise  and  the  character  of  these  Jewish  sectaries  ; 

*  Already  in  Tit.  1,  10  'they  of  the  circumcision'  are  only  a  special  portion 
of  the  intruders.     In  the  Johannine  Epistles  the  provenance  of  the  false 
teachers  is  not  indicated.    It  is  a  possibility  that  in  the  Revelation  they  who 
claim  to  be  Jews  but  are  of  the  synagogue  of  Satan,  2,  9;  3,  11,  may  be  related 
to  the  errorists  there  opposed.    In  Ignatius,  Magnes.  8.10  and  PhUad.  6,  the 
use  of  *  Joudaismos '  in  connection  with  errorists,  as  Lutgert  states,  Ami  u. 
Geistj  p.  162,  is  the  more  conceivable  if  the  opposing  movement  originated  with; 
Jewish  teachers.    Yet  as  he  shows,  the  term  is  not  here  used  of  the  religion 
Israel  or  nomism,  but  is  the  denial  of  the  Son  of  God  and  his  resurrection, 
by  unbelieving  Jews  so  by  errorists  who  although  uncircumcised  teach  *  J< 
daismos.' 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  367 

whose  activity  he  recognizes  in  the  first  century.  He  assigns  as  the 
sources  of  the  manifold  currents  of  thought  among  the  Jewish 
people,  both  the  many  sided  developments  of  Old  Testament  ideas 
and  also  the  influences  of  heathenism  upon  Judaism  when  it  too 
was  drawn  into  the  sjmicretistic  movement.  By  syncretism  he 
understands  a  mixture  of  the  most  various  views  in  manifold 
circles  of  culture.  Philosophical  speculations,  cosmological  views, 
religious  myths  were  utilized  to  answer  the  profoundest  questions: 
concerning  God  and  the  world,  spirit  and  matter,  the  absolute  and 
the  finite,  world-development  and  world-goal.  Redemption  from 
all  that  is  material  was  striven  after.  Answers  were  sought  to  the 
questions  of  the  origin  of  evil,  the  way  of  salvation,  the  rescue  of 
man  from  the  powers  of  death  and  unto  immortality.  The  funda- 
mental tendency  of  the  movement  is  this:  man  as  regards  his 
spirit  belongs  to  a  higher  world;  his  development,  his  perfecting  is 
the  problem. 

The  two  leading  forms  of  this  syncretism  are  the  Oriental, 
especially  Babylonian-Persian,  and  the  Hellenistic.  While  Hoen- 
nicke  realizes  that  it  is  difficult  to  determine  to  what  extent  they 
were  present  in  the  Judaism  of  the  first  century  and  by  what  proc- 
ess they  related  themselves  with  Jewish  thought,  he  yet  recog- 
nizes that  this  syncretism  has  essentially  contributed  to  the  variety 
of  the  thought-world  of  the  Jews  which  appears  both  in  the  lists  of 
sects  in  Judaism  given  by  the  Church  Fathers  and  also  in  Philo's 
reference  to  a  radical  religious  party  of  the  Jews  who  freed  them- 
selves from  the  precepts  of  the  Old  Testament  and  neglected  the 
observance  of  the  Law,  de  migr,  Ahhm.  M. 1.450.  As  to  the  influ- 
ence of  this  movement  on  Christianity,  he  concludes,  p.  240,  that 
in  Palestine  and  Syria  Jewish  Christianity,  including  judaistic 
Christianity,  appropriated  many  syncretistic  features.  But  in 
regard  to  the  western  Diaspora  he  limits  himself  to  the  statement 
that  'we  only  know  from  such  writings  as  Colossians  and  the 
Pastorals  that  Christian  circles  of  Jewish  origin  favored  syncretis- 
tic views.'  When  he  adds,  'we  must  further  say  that  Jewish 
Christian  syncretism  was  a  not  unimportant  factor  in  the  rise  of 
gnosticism,'  i.  e.,  of  the  second  century;  and  that  'gnosticism  is 
closely  related  with  the  formation  of  Jewish  sects,'  we  can  appro- 
priate his  admissions  of  the  existence  of  a  syncretistic  Jewish  sect 
in  the  Apostolic  Age,  of  its  influence  upon  Christian  circles  and  of 


368    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

its  essential  relation  to  later  gnostic  systems,  as  supporting  our 
own  conclusions  as  to  the  activity  and  character  of  such  a  gnosti- 
cizing  Jewish  movement  in  the  Apostolic  churches  from  the  middle 
of  the  first  century  onwards. 

Referring  to  Jewish  scholars,  we  find  that  among  them  Blau, 
Jew.  Encyc.  5,  612,  also  concludes  that  there  was  a  Jewish  gnos- 
ticism and  that  it  antedated  Christianity.  He  also  agrees  with 
those  Jewish  scholars  who  hold  that  in  rabbinical  writings  the  title 
Minim  is  often  applied  to  these  early  Jewish  gnostics.  And  to 
Blau  ^it  is  highly  probable  that  a  not  inconsiderable  part  of  the 
earliest  Jewish  gnosis  is  still  extant,  though  in  somewhat  modified 
form,  in  mystical  small  midrashim  and  in  the  mediaeval  produc- 
tions of  the  Jewish  Cabbala. '  In  the  view  of  J.  Abelson  likewise, 
although  the  Zohar  first  appeared  in  Spain  in  the  13th  century, 
'many  an  idea  and  doctrine  certainly  goes  as  far  back'  as  the 
second  century,  'and  further  too.' ^  He  too  holds  that  'Philo, 
Josephus  and  older  portions  of  the  Talmuds,  sources  belonging  to 
the  first  two  or  three  Christian  centuries,  contain  allusions  to  cer- 
tain sects  who  differed  in  their  mode  of  fife  from  the  general  body 
of  the  Jews  and  who  were  in  possession  of  certain  esoteric  teach- 
ings.' And  he  infers  in  particular  from  scattered  rabbinic  re- 
marks, that  there  existed  in  the  early  Christian  centuries  a  small 
sect  of  Jewish  mystics  with  an  esoteric  science  of  the  Merkabah: 
the  lore  of  the  heavenly  Throne-chariot  of  Ezekiel,  1,  4  ff. 

Besides  the  above  conclusions  of  these  rabbinical  scholars  as  to 
the  existence  in,  or  prior  to,  the  Apostolic  Age  of  syncretistic 
Jewish  sects  devoted  in  general  to  speculative  mysticism,  Honig  ^ 
argues  from  Jewish  and  Christian  sources  that  Jews  were  the  first 
gnostics,  and  one  of  their  earliest  sects  were  the  Ophites.     He 

^J.  Abelson,  Jewish  Mysticism,  p.  118  f.,  35.  He  rejects,  however,  the 
theory  of  Reitzenstein,  who  in  Poimandres  regards  the  cabbaUstic  work 
Yetsirah  as  a  Hebrew  production  of  the  second  century,  b.  c.  Lightfoot, 
Colossians,  p.  93,  while  not  using  the  Cabbala  as  a  development  of  Jewish 
thought  illustrating  the  Colossian  heresy,  e.  g.,  the  'thrones'  of  1,  16  and  the 
'tradition'  of  2,  8,  because  of  the  impossibility  of  separating  and  dating  the 
ancient  elements,  points  out  that  'the  cabbalistic  doctrine  however  will 
serve  to  show  to  what  extent  Judaism  may  be  developed  in  the  direction  of 
speculative  mysticism.' 

•  A.  Honig,  Die  Ophiten,  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Geschichte  des  jiidischen  Gnosti- 
cismus, 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  369 

maintains,  more  definitely,  that  the  Ophites  belonged  originally  to 
Judaism;  and  in  contrast  to  the  results  of  more  recent  investigators, 
insists  also  that  "they  derived  all  the  material  for  the  construction 
of  their  new  system  from  Judaism;  even  Demiurgism,  the  most 
hostile  enemy  of  Judaism,  could  nevertheless  arise  in  Judaism 
alone.  It  was  excogitated  to  preserve  the  appearance  of  monothe- 
ism when  the  question  *  unde  mala '  entered  the  foreground  of  Jew- 
ish reflection  and  imperiously  demanded  an  answer."  He  dates 
the  origin  of  the  Ophite  movement  at  the  latest  in  the  time  of  Philo 
in  Alexandria  and  in  the  days  of  Jochanan  ben  Sakkai  in  Pales- 
tine in  the  last  third  of  the  first  century.  Pfleiderer,  Urchristm. 
II  pp.  81-99,  in  his  reconstruction  of  the  Ophite  system  from 
Irenseus*  account,  also  assigns  it  to  a  pre-Christian  origin;  but 
among  the  Jews  of  the  eastern  Dispersion  who  combined  in  it 
Babylonian  theogonic  and  cosmogonic  myths  with  legendary 
constructions  of  the  Old  Testament  primitive  history  of  man. 
Upon  its  contact  with  Christianity,  a  new  syncretism  arose 
in  view  of  the  many  related  features,  especially  the  antilegalism 
of  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  redemption,  and  the  doctrine  of  a 
redeemer  and  divine  Son  descending  from  heaven  and  as- 
cending thither  as  conqueror  of  all  powers  below  or  above  the 
earth. 

In  addition  to  the  general  recognition  of  a  syncretistic  element 
of  speculative  mysticism  in  Judaism  in  the  Apostolic  Age,  and 
besides  the  specific  theories  that  the  system  of  the  Ophite  gnostics 
and  their  aUied  groups  was  originally  Jewish  and  pre-Christian, 
M.  Friedlander  has  more  definitely  advocated  in  various  publica- 
tions an  antinomian  gnosticism  in  Alexandrian  Judaism  contempo- 
rary with  Philo  or  earlier.^  Holding  with  Hamack  that  gnosti- 
cism is  older  than  Christianity  *  he  maintains  from  Philo  the  exist- 
ence in  the  Diaspora  of  a  radical  allegorizing  Jewish  sect  which 

'  His  construction  of  the  movement  may  be  found  most  fully  in  Der  Vor- 
christliche  j'udische  Gnosticismus,  1898,  and  in  Geschichte  der  judischen  Apologe- 
tik,  1903,  chap.  VIII,  Die  Polemik  nach  innen. 

sHarnack,  Gesch.  d.  cdtchrist.  Litteratur,  I,  144.  'It  is  undubitable  that 
there  existed  a  Jewish  gnosticism  before  a  Christian  and  Jewish  Christian 
gnosticism.  Since  the  second  century  b.  c.  as  the  Apocalypses  themselves 
prove,  it  was  in  the  blood  of  Judaism,  which  had  appropriated  Babylonian 
and  Syrian  doctrines.  But  perhaps  the  relation  of  this  Jewish  gnosticism  to 
the  Christian  can  never  be  made  clear.' 


370    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Philo  opposes.^  Its  followers  are  sophistical  advocates  of  an  im- 
pious antinomianism  in  which  they  boldly  profess  to  have  been 
excellently  instructed  under  the  guidance  and  doctrine  of  Cain. 
They  are  men  who  think  themselves  wise,  wit  lout  knowing  true 
wisdom:  8oKr)(Tiao(poLj  t6  wpds  akt^Bei.av  ao<f>6v  ovk  cl56res.  Their 
laws  are  the  various  forms  of  lawlessness  and  uncontrolled  desires. 
Friedlander  further  argues  that  this  antinomianism  rests  on  a 
theosophy  and  speculative  cosmogony  opposed  in  Talmudic 
passages  which  he  assigns  to  the  first  century.  And  he  asserts  that 
the  Minim  denounced  in  these  passages  are  not  Christians,  but 
speculative  gnostics.  Hoennicke,  I.  c.  p.  36,  follows  the  Jewish 
scholars  who  deny  that  these  positions  have  been  established.  In 
his  view  the  statements  of  Philo  point  only  to  individual  Jews  of 
philosophical  culture  who  neglected  the  observance  of  the  external 
form  of  the  legal  prescriptions.  He  grants,  however,  t*hat  'what  is 
certain  is  only  that  S5aicretism  strongly  swept  against  Judaism,  but 
could  not  weaken  the  monotheistic  basis. ' 

We  believe  nevertheless  with  Pfleiderer,  Urchr.,  II,  53,  that  'this 
polemic  of  Philo  is  directed  against  the  Jewish  gnostic  sect  of  the 
Cainites,  which  sought  by  sophistical  arts  to  win  adherents  for  its 
antinomistic  doctrine  and  practice,  among  the  Jews  of  the  Dias- 
pora, and  to  influence  the  election  of  the  leaders  of  the  orthodox 
congregations.  Since  the  Cainites  belonged  to  the  widely  spread 
Ophite  gnostics,  there  is  found  in  Philo's  polemic  the  clear  proof  for 
the  existence  of  the  beginnings  of  that  gnosis  already  in  the  pre- 
Christian  Judaism  of  the  Diaspora.'  He  adds  that  'it  arose  not 
from  Alexandrian  Judaism  alone,  but  from  that  mixture  of  Babylo- 
nian, Jewish  and  Hellenistic  religion  in  which  the  various  Christian 
gnostic  sects  have  their  common  sources.  *  For  our  purpose  it  has 
been  enough  to  recognize  the  presence  of  elements  in  contemporary 
or  earlier  Judaism  and  especially  in  Alexandrianism,  which  make 
conceivable  the  Jewish  provenance  of  the  errorists  of  the  New 
Testament  Epistles. 

While  the  determination  of  the  original  point  of  contact  of  this 
Jewish  speculative  movement  with  Christianity  still  remains 
obscure,  the  variety  of  conjectures  concerning  it  points  to  the 

"He  quotes  from  four  Genesis  treatises  of  Philo:  De  Sacrificio  Abelis  et 
Caini,  M.,  I,  163;  Quod  deterius  potion  insidiari  soleat,  I,  19L197;  De  Postenr 
tale  Caini  aibi  visi  sapientis,  I,  232.235;  De  Migratione  Ahrahami,  I,  450. 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  371 

possibilities  of  many  avenues  of  its  approach  to  the  Church.  With 
such  a  movement  already  active  both  in  the  eastern  and  western 
Diaspora,  the  Christian  propaganda  must  naturally  have  come 
into  contact  in  its  early  stages.  Whether  or  not  phases  of  this 
speculation  are  to  be  found  in  the  contemporary  Judaism  of 
Jerusalem  and  Palestine,  there  is  no  suggestion  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  it  intruded  into  the  Christian  churches  of  Jerusalem  and 
Judea.  In  Acts  the  first  attempt  of  the  system  to  intrude  into  the 
Church  is  made  by  Simon  Magus  with  the  first  step  in  the  church 
expansion  beyond  the  Jewish  national  borders.  He  is  there  de- 
scribed as  the  representative  of  the  current  mingling  of  oriental 
theosophy  and  some  form  of  Judaism;  as  attracted  to  Christianity 
both  by  the  miracles  of  Philip,  which  were  clearly  of  an  order  dis- 
tinct from,  and  greater  than,  his  sorceries,  and  also  by  the  gifts  of 
the  Spirit  through  the  Apostles;  as  ambitious  to  exercise  the  same 
powers;  and  at  the  same  time  he  is  denounced,  8,  23,  for  his  moral 
depravity.  Though  no  further  reference  is  made  to  him  in  the  New 
Testament,  Pfleiderer  is  inclined  to  interpret  conjecturally  the 
later  patristic  view  of  him  as  the  arch  heretic,  as  pointing  to  the 
possibility  either  of  a  historical  connection  of  Simon  with  some 
Cainite  or  Ophite  sect,  or  of  its  adoption  of  his  name  as  its  leader 
and  prophet. ^^  The  first  incident  which  Luke  records  in  Paul's 
first  missionary  journey  is  the  Apostle's  conflict  with  another 
Jewish  magus  and  false  prophet  in  Cyprus.  He  is  denounced,  not 
indeed  for  attempted  intrusion  into  the  Church,  but  for  his  op- 
position to  the  Apostles  and  for  seeking  to  turn  aside  the  Pro- 
consul from  the  faith.  While  he  thus  represents  the  forms  of 
Jewish  syncretism  which  maintained  an  attitude  of  rivalry  with 
Christianity,  it  is  suggestive  as  to  the  essential  character  of  his 
opposing  teaching  that  he  is  denounced,  13,  11,  in  the  terms  which 
the  Apostle  later  applies  to  the  gnostic  errorists  in  his  Epistles. 
It  is  therefore  not  strange  that  in  the  period  of  the  Epistles 
beginning  some  five  years  later,  references  should  appear  to  Jewish 
gnostic  intrusion  in  Macedon,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Proconsular 
Asia  and  Crete;  in  all  which  localities  the  Jewish  element  would 
invite  propaganda  not  only  by  Christian  missionaries  but  by 
Jewish  gnostic  teachers  as  well.    We  know,  however,  only  of  their 

^°  For  the  system  of  Simon  and  the  Simonians  see  the  references  in  Bousset, 
op.  cit.y  and  Montgomery,  Samaritans,  p.  265  ff. 


372    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

intrusion  into  the  churches,  and  as  professed  Christians,  and  or- 
dinarily with  letters  commendatory.  Whence  they  thus  came  is 
unknown,  in  our  ignorance  of  the  history  of  the  churches  founded 
in  the  expansion  of  Christianity  from  Jerusalem  to  Palestine, 
Syria,  Cyprus,  Asia  Minor  and  probably  Alexandria,  in  the  period 
of  at  least  fifteen  years  between  the  death  of  Stephen  and  the 
Letters  to  Thessalonica.^^  We  can  next  only  conjecture  the  lines 
of  approach  of  these  syncretistic  Jews  to  Christianity.  The  sug- 
gestion that  they  were  converts  to  some  advanced  development  of 
Christian  teaching  by  the  freer  spirit  of  the  scattered  and  unre- 
strained sympathizers  with  Stephen,  does  not  accord  with  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  trace  of  speculative  mysticism  in  Stephen's  teach- 
ing. Both  he  and  PhiHp  were  concerned  with  the  universalism  of 
the  Gospel,  which  would  naturally  be  developed  along  the  lines  of 
the  subsequent  Pauline  teaching,  as  indicated  in  Acts  11,  25  ff. 
The  work  of  their  Cyprian  and  Cyrenian  associates  is  moreover 
expressly  approved  by  Barnabas,  who  had  been  sent  from  the 
Jerusalem  church  to  inquire  into  the  new  development  of  the 
propaganda  by  the  followers  of  the  Seven.  Nicolaus,  however,  is 
one  of  the  Seven;  and  scholars  are  still  divided  in  opinion  as  to 
whether  he  was  the  foxmder  of  the  hbertine  gnostic  party  of  the 
Nicolaitans.  In  addition  to  the  defense  of  him  by  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  Strom.  3.4.25  f.,  we  note  also  Luke's  commendation  of 
him  as  possessing  the  qualifications  demanded  of  the  Seven. 
Since  the  gnostic  movement  is  recognized  to  have  been  active 
within  the  Church  at  63  a.  d.,  approximately  Harnack's  date  for 
Acts,  Luke  could  not  have  so  written  if  Nicolaus  was  the  founder 
of  a  gnostic  sect.  There  would  be  even  greater  improbability  of 
Luke's  commendation,  if  he  wrote  in  85  according  to  Zahn,  or  a 
decade  later  in  the  view  of  many  liberal  critics.  Should  it  be  sug- 
gested that  Nicolaus  became  heretical  after  63  a.  d.,  then  he  was 
not  the  founder  but  a  follower  of  the  movement  that  was  active  in 
Greece  a  decade  earlier.  Nor  could  he  have  been  a  leader  suffi- 
ciently prominent  to  give  his  name  to  the  false  teaching,  since  in 
Corinth  and  elsewhere  its  leaders,   unlike  this  proselyte  from 

"  If  the  statement  II  Cor.  11,  22:  'Are  they  Hebrews'  means  that  they 
spwke  Aramaic,  as  Plummer  holds,  cp.  also  Trench  Synonyms,  §  xxxix,  and 
Lightfoot  on  Php.  3,  6,  the  next  words  'So  am  I'  from  a  Jew  of  Tarsus  reminds 
us  that  such  speakers  need  not  be  Palestinians. 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  373 

Antioch,  could  boast  of  their  pure  Jewish  descent  as  the  seed  of 
Abraham.  Nor  is  it  probable,  as  Zahn  is  inclined  to  believe, 
Introd.,  Ill,  p.  323,331,  that  the  gnostic  movement  originated  in 
some  School  of  the  Baptist  and  intruded  thence  into  the  Church. 
It  could  conceivably  intrude  independently  into,  and  pervert  the 
teachings  of,  such  isolated  groups  as  readily  as  it  intruded  into  the 
organized  churches.  But  since  its  system  was  libertine  and  anti- 
eschatological,  it  could  not  develop  directly  from  the  Baptist's 
practice  and  teaching.  ApoUos  who  knew  only  the  baptism  of 
John  was  not  a  gnostic  teacher,  but  enjoyed  the  complete  sympathy 
of  Paul.  In  Acts  19,  those  who  had  John's  baptism  knew  nothing 
of  the  Spirit,  which  was  the  characteristic  boast  of  the  gnostics. 
The  asceticism  of  certain  gnostic  sects  would  not  indicate  their 
relation  to,  or  origination  from  the  disciples  of  the  Baptist.  With 
him,  fasting  was  a  penitential  preparation  for  a  judgment  which 
gnostics  denied.  It  was  not  like  theirs,  abstinence  from  specific 
foods  and  drink  on  account  of  their  inherent  evil,  but  a  fasting  on 
certain  days,  Lk.  5,  33,  the  limit  of  whose  frequency  would  seem  to 
be  within  that  of  the  extreme  boast  of  the  Pharisee,  Lk.  18,  12,  who 
fasted  twice  in  the  week. 

In  view  therefore  of  the  untenableness  of  these  suggestions  that 
the  Jewish  syncretistic  teachers  intruded  into  the  PauHne  churches 
around  the  ^gean  from  groups  of  assumed  perverted  followers  of 
Stephen,  Nicolaus  or  John  the  Baptist,  we  are  thrown  back  upon 
the  possibility  of  their  advent  from  some  church  to  which  they  had 
been  admitted  in  Palestine,  outside  of  Judea,  or  in  Syria,  or  in 
Cilicia  whose  metropolis.  Tarsus,  was  the  meeting  point  of  the  orien- 
tal and  western  world,  or  in  Cyprus.  Alexandria,  however,  in  view 
of  the  interest  of  some  of  its  Jewish  sects  in  speculative  mysticism 
and  even  antinomianism,  would  be  the  most  probable  starting 
point  of  intruders  into  the  churches  of  the  iEgean,  if  we  had  any 
evidence  of  early  evangelization  of  its  great  Jewish  population  by 
Palestinian  Christians  or  by  such  men  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene  as 
evangelized  even  Greeks  in  Antioch;  or  by  Barnabas  and  Mark, 
unless  they  concluded  their  second  missionary  journey  at  Paphos 
in  Cyprus,  with  Alexandria  and  its  great  opportunity  facing  them 
in  the  direct  line  of  travel. ^^     But  from  whatever  church  the 

"  Swete,  Expositor,  V,  6,  1897,  p.  275  and  Zahn,  Skizzen,  a.  d.  Leben  d. 
Alten  Kirche,  p.  343,  favor  the  tradition  of  the  evangelization  of  Alexandria 


374    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

errorists  came  into  Greece,  the  case  of  Simon  Magus  proves  that 
suc'i  men  found  it  possible  to  gain  admission  into  it  by  professing 
some  form  of  faith  in  Christ,  in  order  to  be  baptized;  and  with 
their  characteristic  guile  in  reserved  and  adroit  presentation  of 
their  system,  they  must  have  maintained  a  sufficient  standing  in 
the  church  of  their  baptism  to  secure  the  usual  commendatory 
letters  upon  their  departure. 

In  accounting  for  their  membership  in  such  churches  and  for 
their  original  approach  to  Christianity,  we  can  recall  first  the 
dissemination  in  many  forms  of  Jewish  gnosticism  directly  in  the 
track  of  the  Gospel  mission,  which  made  possible  its  early  contact 
with  Christian  communities.  Its  constant  spirit  of  assimilation 
would  next  find  a  special  attraction  in  the  Gospel  as  an  impres- 
sive new  development  of  Judaism.  In  the  prominent  features  of 
the  Christian  preaching,  gnosticizing  Jews  could  recognize  ele- 
ments closely  related  to  their  own  system.  For  here  was  a  new 
form  of  revelation  in  the  Christ  from  heaven;  a  new  teaching 
of  redemption  in  the  revelation  of  this  Christ  and  in  his  conquest 
of  all  the  opposing  powers  of  evil  and  darkness;  a  new  principle 
of  freedom  from  an  external  legaUsm.  It  offered,  and  in  the  evi- 
dent experience  of  its  converts  it  secured,  direct  communion  and 
access  to  God,  with  the  resulting  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of  the 
heavenly  Christ  and  the  accompanying  gnosis,  illumination  and 
manifold  gifts  of  the  Spirit. 

How  they  were  able  to  meet  the  conditions  of  baptismal  pro- 
fession for  admission  to  the  Church,  is  to  be  understood  from  the 
New  Testament  declarations  that  their  lives  and  teachings  re- 
vealed the  insincerity  of  their  professions,  their  real  denials  of  the 
fundamental  faith  and  their  destruction  of  the  fellowship  into 
which  they  had  intruded.  Simon  Magus,  in  spite  of  the  necessary 
baptismal  profession  of  repentance,  was  still  in  the  bond  of  in- 
iquity; still  needed  to  repent  of  his  wickedness;  his  heart  was  not 
right  before  God.  So  too  in  Rom.  6,  Paul  has  to  combat  the  im- 
morality of  errorists  who  ignored  the  renunciation  of  sin  which 
was  involved  in  their  baptism,  in  contrast  to  his  recognition  of 
his  readers'  moral  obedience,  and  'from  the  heart,'  to  the  form 

by  Mark;  Swete  also  thinking  it  likely  that  he  proceeded  thither  from  Cyprus. 
Moflfatt  too,  Paid  and  Paulinism,  p.  24,  states  that  while  Paul  was  at  Ephesus 
'Eg3rpt  apparently  was  already  being  evangelized  by  other  Christians.' 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  375 

of  the  didache  delivered  to  them  at  their  baptism,  cp.  also  I  Pet. 
3,  21.    Similarly  their  confession  of  Jesus  as  Lord  and  Christ  is 
indicated  in  various  passages  as  having  been  qualified  with  the 
reservation  of  a  merely  docetic  association  of  the  human  Jesus  and 
the  heavenly  Christ;  and  their  prof  ession  of  the  hope  of  resurrection 
was  Ukewise  qualified  by  their  interpretation  of  it  as  already  fulfilled 
in  a  spiritual  resurrection  in  baptism.    Once  thus  admitted  into  the 
Church,  they  found  especially  in  the  Pauline  churches  a  soil  pre- 
pared for  the  spread  of  their  perverted  fusion  of  Gospel  principles 
and  their  gnostic  speculations.    And  in  the  measure  of  their  success 
was  involved  further,  a  repudiation  of  unity  and  fellowship  in  the 
Church  with  its  Gospel  tradition  and  ministry.    The  local  clergy 
seem  to  have  been  unable  to  control  the  influence  of  their  ac- 
knowledged gifts  of  eloquent  persuasion  and  their  boasted  gifts 
of  the  Spirit  in  revelations,  visions  and  power  which  both  freed 
them  from,  and  also  exalted  them  above,  the  authority  of  the 
ApostoUc  ministry  and  its  Gospel.    Hence,  instead  of  unity  arose 
the  divisions;  and  primarily  the  divisions  by  them  of  the  disciples 
into  a  class  of  the  merely  psychics,  because  still  adhering  to  the 
imperfect  Gospel  of  the  Apostles  who  themselves  had  no  sufficiency 
in  the  gnosis,  powers  and  freedom  of  the  Spirit;  and  into  the  class 
of  the  pneumatics  consisting  of  themselves  and  their  followers. 
Among  these  would  naturally  be  found  such  women  and  slaves 
as  were  specially  excited  by  the  radical  form  of  the  intruders' 
presentation   of   the   emancipation   essentially   inhering   in   the 
Gospel  teaching.     These  adherents  and  their   leaders   still  re- 
mained in  the  fellowship,  the  activities  and  worship  of  the  Church; 
yet  formed  within  it,  inner  groups,   conventicles  and  separate 
agapse,  which  were  the  foci  of  their  propaganda.     For  initiation 
and  instruction  in  such  groups,  money  payment  was  demanded; 
and  there  and  not  in  the  general  meeting,  I  Cor.  14,  23.26,  we  can 
conclude  were  imparted    the  esoteric    doctrines  in  which  their 
syncretistic  mystical  speculations  and  visions  were  combined  with 
perversions  of  the  Gospel  teachings  by  means  of  allegorical  treat- 
ment of  the  early  chapters  of  Genesis,  since  the  allusions  in  the 
Epistles  to  these  chapters  are  usually  made  in  corrective  sections 
of  polemic  against  the  errorists. 

With  this  view  of  the  probable  construction  of  such  data  as  we 
possess,  to  account  for  the  presence  of  this  movement  in  Pauline 


376    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

churches  in  their  earUest  period;  and  with  this  summary  of  its 
general  principles,  tendencies,  methods  and  issues,  we  may  in 
conclusion  proceed  to  review  in  connection  with  our  earlier  dis- 
cussions, the  New  Testament  method  of  establishment  of  the 
disciples  in  the  behaiosis  of  their  faith  by  apology  and  by  polemic 
against  the  intruding  gnostic  leaders. 

2.    EXPOSURE  AND  DISCIPLINE  OF  THE  ERRORISTS 

This  Apostolic  defense  and  attack  was  not,  however,  conducted, 
as  we  might  have  conjectured,  by  the  method  of  direct  personal 
controversy  with  the  errorists.  This  we  shall  find  was  imprac- 
ticable both  by  reason  of  the  stealthy  tactics  of  the  wily  opponents 
and  also  of  the  profitlessness  of  argument  with  those  who,  while 
professing  Christian  principles,  rejected  in  fact  the  fundamental 
bases  of  Christian  truth  and  life.  For  in  the  first  place  they  in- 
truded into  the  Pauline  churches  in  the  Apostle's  absence,  as  in 
II  Cor.  1 1 ;  and  yet  adroitly  exploited  his  absence  as  proof  of  his 
fear  to  meet  them  and  defend  hi^  teaching  and  authority  by  a 
proof  of  Christ  speaking  in  him,  II  Cor.  13,  3.  Already  in  I 
Thess.,  he  has  to  meet  some  complaint  of  his  failure  to  visit  the 
readers  in  person,  cp.  2,  17;  3,  6.10,  with  the  extended  assurances, 
explanations  and  prayers  of  2,  17-3,  11,  and  with  his  deputation 
of  Timothy  to  estabUsh  them.  While  we  cannot  in  this  passage 
determine  the  source  and  animus  of  the  complaint,  these  are 
clear  in  I  and  II  Cor.  Timothy  is  again  sent  as  his  delegate, 
I  Cor.  4,  17;  yet  in  the  next  verse  he  has  to  ward  off  the  charge  of 
his  enemies  that  his  own  absence  is  a  confession  of  lack  of  ability 
to  cope  with  them  personally,  since  his  bodily  presence  is  weak 
and  his  discourse  is  of  no  account.  He  then  definitely  engages  to 
come  shortly  to  Corinth  and  to  know  not  the  word  of  them  that 
are  puffed  up  but  the  power.  ^^  But  from  no  Epistle  does  Paul 
appear  to  have  met  any  of  them  directly,  until  in  I  Tim.  he  names 
Hymenaeus  and  Alexander.  Even  then  we  hear  nothing  of  ar- 
gument or  persuasion,  but  only  of  a  pronouncement  of  their 
shipwreck  concerning  faith  and  morals  and  of  the  Apostle's  ex- 
communication of  them,  along  with  a  delivery  unto  Satan,  yet 
still  with  a  disciplinary  purpose. 

Until  then  he  seems  to  know  of  them  and  their  system  by  re- 
» I  Cor.  4,  18-21;  II  Cor.  1,  12-24;  10,  1  S.;  13,  1-10. 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  377 

ports,  and  to  have  dealt  with  them  through  the  churches  by  his 
Letters  or  through  his  delegates.  In  considering  the  references 
to  his  method  of  treatment  of  them  as  leaders  of  the  movement, 
we  notice  at  once  that  it  is  sharply  distinguished  from  his  method, 
which  will  be  discussed  later,  of  establishment  of  converts  exposed 
to,  or  yielding  to  their  influence.  This  is  clear  from  the  fact  that 
from  his  earliest  acquaintance  with  their  subtle  activities  and 
concealed  aims,  he  refused  to  recognize  their  Christian  standing. 
In  II  Thess.  3,  2,  as  he  prays  that  he  and  his  converts  may  be  de- 
livered from  the  unreasonable  and  wicked  men,  he  indicates  also 
that  they  are  not  of  the  faith.    The  same  position  is  taken  in 

I  Cor.  11,  19,  where  he  asserts  the  necessity  of  divisions,  alpeo-etj, 
that  the  approved,  oi  hoKiyioiy  may  be  made  manifest  among  you; 
which  involves  as  I  John  2,  19,  that  the  errorists  'may  be  made 
manifest  that  they  all  are  not  of  us.'  In  I  Cor.  12,  3;  16,  22,  the 
ground  of  this  repudiation  of  them  may  be  judged  to  be  his  in- 
creasing recognition  that  they  do  not  maintain  the  fundamental 
Christian  belief  in  Jesus  and  in  his  Parousia.  After  the  visits  of 
Timothy  and  Titus  to  Corinth,  the  defense  and  developing  at- 
tack of  I  Cor.  and  the  assurance  of  the  Apostle's  approaching 
visit,  the  errorists  are  forced  into  open  opposition.    And  now  in 

II  Cor.,  after  the  nine  chapters  concerned  with  establishing  the 
Corinthian  disciples  renewing  their  allegiance  to  Paul,  the  closing 
four  chapters  of  polemic  against  the  false  teachers  are  based  upon 
his  direct  exposure  of  them:  that  instead  of  being  apostles  of 
Christ  they  are  in  fact  ministers  of  Satan,  and  that  their  work  is 
not  for  the  upbuilding  but  for  the  demolition  of  Christian  faith 
and  life. 

With  this  refusal  to  recognize  their  teaching  as  based  on  Chris- 
tian principles  is  related  both  the  absence  of  explicit  formulations 
of  the  opposing  theories  and  of  the  arguments  by  which  they  were 
maintained,  and  also  the  standing  rule  in  the  Pastorals  forbidding 
the  Evangelists  to  enter  into  discussion  with  the  errorists.  ^^  Their 
empty,  vain,  foolish,  ignorant  talking;  their  questions  of  con- 
troversy and  strife  about  words,  are  profitable  for  nothing;  are 
for  the  subversion  of  them  that  hear,  rather  than  for  the  steward- 
ship of  God  in  faith;  are  profane  and  old  wives'  myths,  opposed 
to  the  words  of  faith  and  the  good  doctrine.  Hence,  the  Evangelists 
"  I  Tim.  1,  4;  4,  7;  6,  20;  II  Tim.  2,  14.16.23  f.;  Titus  1,  11;  3,  9. 


378    APOL(X>Y  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

are  not  to  engage  in  controversial  discussion  with  such  teachers, 
but  to  command  them  not  to  teach  this  'different  doctrine';  to 
stop  their  mouths;  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  their  profane 
myths  and  controversies;  to  shun  and  turn  away  from  their  pro- 
fane babbUngs  and  falsely  called  gnosis.  There  could  be  discussion 
at  Athens  with  Gentiles,  based  on  some  elementary  common 
principles  of  religious  philosophy.  In  the  synagogues,  the  Chris- 
tian missionary  could  reason  with  Jews  from  the  common  ground 
of  belief  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  We  have  New  Testa- 
ment records  of  controversy  with  Judaizers,  with  whom  Paul 
could  reason  from  accepted  beliefs  in  the  Old  Testament,  the 
Gospel  and  the  spiritual  facts  of  Christian  experience.  But  argu- 
ment and  appeal  could  serve  no  conceivable  purpose  with  men, 
who  with  full  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  and  with  profession  of 
beUef  in  it,  deUberately  rejected  its  fundamental  principles.  There 
could,  therefore,  be  only  direct  denunciation  of  their  repudiation 
of  the  common  bases  of  the  Christian  life,  of  their  perversion  of 
the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  their  destructive  influence  sub- 
verting the  unity  and  growth  of  the  Christian  brotherhood. 

And  this  denunciation  is  pronounced  in  the  exercise  of  the 
Church's  discipline  of  such  professors  of  Christianity,  as  appears 
in  passages  alluding  to  direct  personal  relations  with  them  as 
claiming  membership  in  the  Church.    Although  as  stated  there 
is  no  certainty  from  the  Epistles  before  the  Pastorals  that  Paul 
himself  came  into  personal  colhsion  with  them,  there  are  some 
intimations  of  the  method  of  discipline  he  would  adopt,  if  he  met 
them  directly.    In  I  Cor.  4,  19,  he  warns  that  on  his  visit  he  will 
learn  not  the  word  of  them  that  are  puffed  up  but  the  power; 
and  that  his  discipline  of  them  and  their  followers  may  be  with 
a  rod  rather  than  in  love  and  a  spirit  of  gentleness.    The  form  of 
this  discipline  with  a  rod  may  be  reflected  in  the  concluding  au- 
tograph anathema  of  16,  22.     The  severity  of  his  discipline  in 
person  on  his  visit  to  Corinth  is  announced  in  II  Cor.  10,  2-6:  it 
is  to  be  with  weapons  of  warfare  mighty  to  the  casting  down  of 
the  opposing  movement  exalting  itself  against  the  gnosis  of  God, 
and  which  in  11,  3;  13-15,  is  denounced  as  Satanic.    Further  in 
10,  6  he  is  in  readiness  to  avenge  all  disobedience,  when  the  obedi- 
ence of  the  Corinthians  shall  be  made  full:  where  he  appears  to 
distinguish  between  his  discipline  of  the  Corinthians  and  of  the 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  379 

false  teachers  to  whom  he  is  referring  in  the  passage.  In  the 
Pastorals,  however,  the  two  EvangeUsts  are  in  direct  relations 
with  the  errorists  whose  activities  are  now  more  open  and  whose 
system  had  become  more  fully  exposed.  Titus  must  also  have 
met  them  in  Corinth;  and  Timothy,  who  may  also  have  met 
them  there  and  in  Thessalonica  and  elsewhere,  is  associated  in  the 
writing  of  all  the  earher  Epistles  concerned  with  the  false  teach- 
ing. Both  would,  therefore,  know  the  mind  of  the  Apostle  as  to 
their  discipline.  Timothy  is  besides  definitely  reminded  of  the 
discipline  of  excommunication  inflicted  by  Paul  upon  Hymenaeus 
and  Alexander. 

We  have,  moreover,  two  disciplinary  rules  in  the  Pastorals, 
pointing  to  the  expulsion  of  such  errorists,  the  grounds  for  it  and 
the  controlling  purpose  of  it.  Titus,  3, 10,  is  to  reject  an  alpertKos 
man.  The  rejection  is  obviously  from  the  communion  of  the 
Church.  Such  a  punishment  reveals  that  the  man  is  more  than 
'factious,'  which  was  not  an  uncommon  sin  and  which  would  not 
as  here  be  the  only  sin  mentioned  as  leading  to  exclusion.  In  the 
immediate  context,  vs.  9,  it  is  the  sin  of  men  who  cause  divisions 
and  separations  based  on  acceptance  of  their  false  teachings  and 
immoral  practices.  Besides  refusal  to  discuss  their  tenets  with 
them,  and  prohibition  of  their  teaching  in  the  Church,  there  is  to 
be  administered  the  discipline  of  vovdeala:  direct  warning  in- 
struction of  their  error  and  sin.  Upon  refusal  to  return  to  the 
truth  of  the  Gospel,  they  receive  a  second  and  final  warning;  and 
upon  rejection  of  it,  will  follow  their  expulsion.  The  ground  of 
this  action  is  the  direct  knowledge  that  such  a  one  is  e^icTTpaxTat: 
is  completely  perverted  from  the  Christian  faith  and  life.  The 
term  occurs  again  in  the  Greek  Bible  only  in  Dt.  32,  20,  from 
which  it  may  have  been  taken.  There  it  describes  apostatizing 
Israel  as  'a  very  perverse  generation,'  and  is  paralleled  with 
'children  in  whom  is  no  faithfulness,'  and  is  followed  by  the 
divine  discipline  of  judgments  in  vss.  21  ff.^^  The  accompanying 
ground  of  his  exclusion  is  that  his  persisting  subversion  of  the 
truth  is  a  sin  in  which  he  is  self-condemned.    This  condemnation 

"  The  probability  that  Dt.  32  was  used  in  the  primitive  collection  of  Testi- 
monia  appears  from  its  frequent  citation:  Mtw.  17,  17  and  parallel,  Lk.  9,  41; 
Acts  2,  40;  Rom.  10,  19;  15,  10;  I  Cor.  10,  20.22;  Ph.  2, 15;  probably  in  Acts 
13,  10;  20,  30;  and  also  Hbws.  10,  30  as  applied  to  the  errorists. 


380    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

goes  beyond  the  Evangelist's  rejection  of  him  from  the  church 
fellowship.  That  is  TratSeia,  disciplinary  correction  which  may 
lead  to  a  change  of  mind  and  life.  But  as  in  Hebrews  2,  3,  his  sin 
is  'neglect  of  so  great  salvation/  and  in  10,  20  f.,  is  willful  sin  after 
receiving  the  knowledge  of  the  truth;  a  treading  under  foot  the 
Son  of  God,  counting  the  blood  of  the  Covenant  an  unholy  thing, 
doing  despite  unto  the  Spirit  of  grace;  for  which  there  remains 
no  more  a  sacrifice  for  sins.  Rejecting  the  salvation  of  the 
Gospel,  he  condemns  himself  to  the  judgment  from  which  it  alone 
delivers. 

This  view  of  the  rule  in  Titus  is  supported  by  the  rule  in  II 
Tim.  2,  25.  Towards  all,  including  here  those  influenced  by  the 
errorists,  the  Evangelist,  vs.  24,  is  to  observe  the  standing  rule 
which  was  already  in  force  in  I  Thess.  5,  14.  He  is  to  be  gentle 
towards  all,  ready  and  skilled  to  teach,  forbearing.  Then  foUows 
a  special  rule  concerning  the  errorists  who  are  distinguished  from 
the  general  classes  of  vs.  24.  As  they  reject  the  church  teaching 
and  the  admonitions  prescribed  in  Titus,  there  remains  only 
TTttiSela:  the  disciplinary  correction  of  exclusion.  Their  self-con- 
demnation to  this  expulsion  is  reflected  in  the  description  of  them 
as  being  already  in  the  snare  of  the  devil;  as  his  captives  and  doing 
his  will.  No  further  ministry  of  the  Church  can  effect  their  es- 
cape from  that  snare  and  service,  since  they  reject  its  message 
and  means  of  salvation.  The  only  possible  ministry  to  them  is 
the  Church's  standing  witness  of  their  actual  separation  from  it, 
by  its  discipline  of  exclusion.  This  is  not  exercised  in  bitterness 
but  'in  meekness,'  cp.  II  Cor.  10,  1;  not  in  assurance  of  their 
absolute  rejection,  but  in  the  hope  that  through  the  Church's 
discipline  or  some  divine  influence,  God  may  grant  them  repent- 
ance unto  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  a  return  unto  a  sound  mind, 
II  Tim.  2,  25. 

Outside  the  Pauline  Epistles  we  meet  with  the  same  attitude 
and  the  same  method  of  treatment  of  them.  In  Hebrews  the 
warnings  against  'neglect  of  so  great  salvation'  increase  in  def- 
initeness  from  'how  shall  we  escape,'  and  'let  us  fear  lest  haply 
any  one  of  you  should  seem  to  have  come  short  of  the  promise  of 
entering  into  his  rest;'  and  'it  is  impossible  to  renew  again  unto 
repentance  those  who  were  once  enlightened  and  fell  away,  seeing 
they  crucify  to  themselves   the   Son  of  God  afresh,   though  in 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  381 

6,  9  the  readers  are  assured  that  they  are  not  viewed  as  being  in 
this  class;  to  the  climax  in  9,  29  ff. :  the  sorer  punishment  of  which 
he  shall  be  judged  worthy,  who  has  rejected  the  Son  of  God,  the 
blood  of  the  Covenant,  the  Spirit  of  grace.  No  further  threat  of 
the  rejected  Church  discipline  is  made,  but  the  solemn  warning  is 
given  of  judgment  at  the  hands  of  the  living  God.  And  yet  there 
is  still  added,  12,  14  ff.,  the  conviction  of  the  Church's  duty  of  all 
possible  ministry  to  them:  of  looking  carefully,  eirLaKoirovvTes, 
lest  there  be  any  man  that  falleth  back  from  the  grace  of  God; 
lest  there  be  any  fornicator  or  profane  person  as  Esau  who  sold 
his  own  birthright,  who  was  rejected  from  inheritance  of  the 
blessing. 

Jude  renews  the  most  solemn  warnings  of  divine  judgments 
awaiting  the  errorists.  Yet  he  too  renews,  vss.  22.23,  the  Church's 
duty  of  any  possible  ministry.  Unfortunately  the  text  is  so  un- 
certain that  commentators  cannot  decide  positively  concerning 
the  reference  to  the  false  teachers  in  this  closing  exhortation. 
Though  Westcott  and  Hort  have  remarked  that  the  triple  division 
adopted  by  Tischendorf  and  Tregelles  from  A  and  the  Sinaitic, 
gives  no  satisfactory  sense,  it  is  still  retained  by  Mayor.  He  con- 
siders that  Jude  does  not  here  touch  upon  the  case  of  the  heretical 
leaders.  To  him  the  three  classes  are  first  the  doubters  or  the 
disputers  of  vs.  9,  who  are  to  be  reproved  and  convinced,  reading 
eXiyx^re  in  vs.  22;  next,  those  in  more  imminent  danger,  who  are 
to  be  snatched  from  the  fire;  the  third  class,  those  who  seem  to  be 
beyond  human  help,  who  are  to  be  treated  with  trembling  com- 
passion, yet  with  shrinking  from  personal  communication.  Ap- 
parently this  last  class  has  fully  identified  itself  with  the  heretical 
leaders,  who  would,  therefore,  be  objects  of  the  same  'compassion 
in  fear.'  But  it  is  far  more  probable  that  only  two  classes  are 
referred  to,  as  in  the  text  adopted  by  W.  H.,  Ws.  and  von  Soden. 
In  this  case  the  first  reference  could  be  to  the  errorists,  though 
eXeare  does  not  accord  with  the  preceding  denunciations.  We 
may,  however,  as  W.  H.  suggests  regard  it  as  intrusive,  being 
mechanically  inserted  from  the  second  clause;  or  better,  adopt 
with  Mayor  the  frequent  reading  eXiyx^re.  As  elsewhere  in  the 
New  Testament  the  errorists  are  to  be  disciplined  by  being  ex- 
posed, convicted  of  error.  And  the  appended  Old  Testament 
quotation  echoes  the  warnings  of  the  Epistle  and  expresses  the 


382    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

aim  of  the  Church's  discipline  of  them:  to  save  them  by  snatching 
them  from  the  fire  of  judgment  they  have  incurred;  just  as  in 
Zech.  3,  2  in  the  judgment  scene  of  Satan  rebuked,  Israel  in  its 
representative  high  priest  Joshua  with  Satan  as  his  adversary, 
is  a  brand  by  God's  grace  plucked  from  the  fire,  cp.  Mayor:  of 
captivity  which  was  the  punishment  of  national  sin. 

The  distinct  ministry  of  *  compassion  with  fear'  in  23  b,  naturally 
points  to  the  distinct  class  of  those  influenced  by  the  heretical 
leaders.  Again  an  Old  Testament  quotation  is  appended,  pre- 
sumably suggested  by  the  filthy  garments  of  Joshua  in  the  fore- 
going passage  of  Zechariah.  Here  it  expresses  the  sensual  im- 
morality into  which  the  false  teaching  led  its  followers.  The 
'compassion  with  fear'  is  the  standing  church  rule  of  discipline 
*  in  meekness'  with  which  we  have  met  frequently.  Its  statement 
in  Gal.  6, 1,  will  best  illustrate  this  verse  in  Jude:  restore  in  the 
spirit  of  meekness,  looking  to  thyself  lest  thou  also  be  tempted. 
The  fear  of  Jude,  vs.  23,  is,  therefore,  not,  as  often  stated,  the 
fear  of  contamination,  for  which  the  facts  of  Christian  rescue 
work  afford  no  justification.  But  'hating  even  the  garment 
spotted  by  the  flesh'  expresses  rather  the  Christian's  own  ideal 
purity  and  animates  him  as  in  Jas.  5,  19  f.  to  compassion  and 
rescue  of  the  erring  brother. 

Although  in  I  John  the  errorists  have  at  this  period  gone  out 
of  the  Church  and  in  II  John  are  denied  admission  into  Christian 
circles,  the  same  method  of  treatment  is  indicated  as  in  previous 
Epistles:  no  discussion  of  the  principles  or  arguments  of  their 
system;  exposure  of  their  denials  of  the  Gospel:  denunciation 
of  their  conduct.  We  may  note  also  the  same  distinction  as 
before  in  the  treatment  of  disciples  exposed  to  their  influence. 
While  the  Epistle  aims  to  guard  its  readers  from  yielding  to  this 
influence  by  every  ministry  of  witness,  exhortation  and  prayer, 
the  separated  apostates  from  the  Church's  faith  in  Christ,  as  in 
the  view  of  numerous  scholars,  are  regarded  as  sinning  unto 
death.  For  their  forgiveness  John  does  not  bid  the  churches  to 
intercessory  prayer  with  the  'boldness  that  if  we  ask  anything 
according  to  God's  will,  he  heareth  us.'  Persistent  continuance 
in  immorality  and  willful  rejection  of  the  divine  propitiation  of 
the  incarnate  Son  of  God  makes  forgiveness  inconceivable,  since 
all  its  necessary  conditions  are  refused.    Such  sinners  '  shut  their 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  383 

hearts  to  the  only  power  that  could  save  them.'  ^^  Yet  even  in 
this  case  there  is  no  absolute,  final  despair  concerning  them. 
Though  it  is  not  possible  to  pray  for  their  forgiveness  while  im- 
penitent, it  is  still  possible  to  pray  for  their  repentance  in  order 
to  their  forgiveness  and  restoration.  Nevertheless  since  the 
Church  has  exhausted  every  ministry  to  lead  them  to  repentance, 
there  remains  only  as  in  II  Tim.  2,  25  some  form  of  direct  divine 
correction  by  which  peradventure  he  may  give  them  repentance 
unto  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  escape  from  the  judgment 
impending  on  their  continuance  in  sin  unto  death. 

Such  a  possible  divine  method  of  their  restoration  appears  too 
in  the  references  to  the  Nicolaitans  in  the  Apocalypse.  Ephesus 
could  not  bear  the  company  of  these  evil  men;  had  tested  them, 
pronounced  them  to  be  false  apostles  and  had,  like  her  Lord,  hated 
their  evil  deeds.  Evidently  they  had  been  excluded  from  that 
church.  But  in  Pergamum  there  are  found  those  who  hold  at 
least  their  immoral  teachings.  The  church  itself  is  called  to 
repentance  for  this  sin  of  some  of  its  members,  while  they  them- 
selves are  warned  of  Christ's  coming  to  war  against  them  with 
the  punitive  sword  of  his  mouth,  cp.  Hebws.  4,  12  f.  Next  at 
Thyratira  we  meet  with  a  leader  of  the  errorists,  'a  person  or 
party  in  whose  doings  the  writer  saw  a  resemblance  to  Jezebel,' 
Ahab's  wife:  introducing  false  prophecy,  teaching  of  error,  im- 
morality. To  Jezebel  was  given  time  to  repent,  but  she  wills  not 
to  repent.  Whereupon  follows  the  divine  correction.  The  leader 
Jezebel  is  to  be  cast  upon  a  bed  of  pain  and,  following  Swete,  the 
members  of  the  Church  who  were  led  by  her  teaching  into  pagan 
vices  and  spiritual  adultery,  are  to  be  cast  into  great  tribulation 
unless  they  repent  of  her  works.  This  suggests  that  her  divine 
chastisement  also  is  in  the  divine  purpose  to  lead  her  to  repent- 
ance. Yet  that  her  sin,  while  she  is  impenitent,  is  unto  death, 
appears  in  vs.  23 :  her  children,  'her  spiritual  progeny  as  distin- 
guished from  those  misled  for  a  time'  shall  be  killed  with  death. 
A  similar  principle  of  direct  divine  chastisement  as  a  discipline 
that  might  lead  men  to  repentance,  appears  in  9,  20  f.  and  in 
16,  9.11,  though  in  both  cases  they  repented  not.    Yet  the  possi- 

i«  Bethune-Baker  on  I  John  5,  16  in  H.  D.  B.,  II,  58a,  'To  one  who  thus 
sins  the  way  of  forgiveness  is  closed;  at  least  it  is  not  to  be  opened  through 
the  intercession  of  his  brethren,  which  in  other  cases  would  avail.' 


384    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

bility  of  divine  punishment  leading  to  penitence  is  expressed  in 
11,  13,  where  after  the  second  woe  the  rest  of  men  became  af- 
frighted and  gave  glory  to  the  God  of  heaven,  which  Swete  inter- 
prets as  a  confession  of  sin  induced  by  fear  or  despair. 

The  polemic  against  the  intruders  is  thus  restricted  to  their 
denunciation  and  discipline,  without  a  direct  presentation  and 
discussion  of  their  system.  The  controlUng  aim  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment references  to  it  is  the  estabUshment  of  disciples  in  stedfast- 
ness  of  faith  and  in  the  worthy  walk  which  are  endangered  by 
its  attack.  Such  allusions,  therefore,  to  its  principles  and  issues 
as  we  have  able  to  recognize  are  made  from  this  standpoint. 

3.   METHODS  OF  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  FAITHFUL 

From  the  earliest  to  the  latest  Epistles  we  meet  with  the  same 
general  method  of  establishment  of  the  faithful  against  the  sub- 
versive movement.  It  consists  as  we  have  seen  first  and  negatively 
of  the  exposure  of  the  intruding  system  as  a  direct  denial  of  the 
Gospel  which  the  readers  have  received  and  wherein  they  stand; 
next  and  positively  of  a  call  to  be  stedfast  and  immovable,  to  hold 
fast  and  to  abide  in  the  primitive  tradition  of  the  Gospel  with  its 
manifold  witness  issuing  in  that  of  personal  experience  of  salva- 
tion in  a  direct  access  to  God  through  Christ  in  one  Spirit.  There 
is  no  renewal  of  the  primitive  apologia,  cp.  Hebws,  5,  12;  6,  1, 
but  a  confident  appeal  to  its  validity  in  their  experience  of  salva- 
tion and  spiritual  growth,  in  antithesis  to  the  emptiness  of  the 
opposing  system  and  the  impending  shipwreck  of  its  followers. 
An  appeal  to  the  primitive  Gospel  and  to  the  original  experience 
of  those  accepting  it,  is  of  course  a  general  means  of  establishment 
on  any  occasion  of  flagging  zeal,  laxity  or  lowered  tone  of  religious 
life.  But  it  is  definitely  made  in  the  polemical  sections  of  the 
Epistles  as  the  essential  means  of  establishing  believers  by  re- 
calling the  Apostolic  Gospel  and  the  bebaiosis  of  faith  both  as  a 
criterion  and  counteraction  of  the  error  and  also  as  the  basis  and 
principle  of  their  spiritual  growth.  What  Moffatt,  Introd.,  p.  346, 
has  remarked  concerning  the  polemic  in  Jude,  applies  to  other 
New  Testament  writers  as  well:  *  Religious  conservatism  is  its 
keynote.  The  pretensions  of  the  impious  men  are  contrasted 
with  the  fixed  and  final  tradition.'  It  is  not,  however,  a  con- 
servatism opposing    development,    progress    and    growth    from 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  385 

Christian  principles  to  the  goal  of  the  fullness  of  Christ;  but  is  a 
conservation  of  the  fundamental  reaUties  and  principles  of  Chris- 
tian faith  and  hope,  of  the  moral  ideals  and  of  the  unity  of  the 
Body  of  Christ,  as  these  were  delivered  and  accepted  in  the 
original  Gospel  of  the  unchanging  revelation  of  God  in  Christ. 

The  use  of  this  method  of  appeal  to  primitive  preaching  and 
belief  in  establishing  believers  against  the  false  teaching  could 
be  traced  in  detail  from  I  Thess.  to  the  Johannine  Epistles. ^^  The 
constancy  and  confidence  of  this  method  obviously  points  to  the 
general  recognition  of  the  validity  and  finaUty  of  the  revelation 
of  Christ.  For  lack  of  conformity  to  it  as  the  criterion,  the  com- 
peting system  is  exposed  and  denounced.  But  the  persistence 
and  evident  measure  of  success  of  the  opposing  movement,  which 
is  seen  in  any  case  by  its  long  maintenance  of  connection  with  the 
Church,  points  also  to  its  skill  in  evading  the  issue  of  conformity, 
and  in  parrying  the  charge  of  subverting  the  fundamental  faith. 

The  evasion  appears  to  have  been  made  by  denial  of  a  valid 
tradition  of  the  Gospel  by  the  Apostolic  ministry.  Paul  seems  to 
have  been  charged  with  preaching  only  a  Christ  and  a  resurrec- 
tion *  after  the  flesh ' :  and  this  because  of  the  insufficiency  of  his 
gift  of  gnosis  of  the  revelation  in  Christ.  In  his  emphatic  in- 
sistence on  the  sole  vahdity  of  his  Gospel  preaching,  he  was  ex- 
ercising an  unwarranted  claim  of  authority  over  the  faith  of 
disciples,  cp.  II  Cor.  1,  24;  I  Cor.  7,  35.  This  evasion  was  met,  as 
we  find,  by  basing  the  vahdity  of  the  Apostles'  tradition  of  the 
Gospel  on  their  personal  discipleship  to  Christ  and  on  their  wit- 
ness of  his  resurrection;  on  their  divine  commission  and  steward- 
ship, with  the  accompanying  divine  witness  in  their  effectual 
preaching,  as  manifested  in  the  spiritual  experience  of  forgive- 
ness and  of  a  new  life  in  the  Spirit  by  those  who  received  the 
Apostolic  message  as  the  word  of  God.  While  contrariwise,  the 
alleged  Gospel  of  the  errorists  is  not  a  witness  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion, but  is  a  philosophy  and  tradition  of  men  which  is  a  vain 
deceit;  its  teachers  have  no  commission,  but  are  false  apostles 
and  antichrists;  and  it  issues  not  in  salvation  but  in  perdition. 

"  Cp.  I  Thess.  1-3;  4,  I  ff.;  5,  1  ff.;  II  Thess.  2,  5  f.  15.;  3,  6  f.;  I  Cor.  2, 1  ff.; 
4,  17;  11,  2;  15,  1  ff.;  Col.  1,  23;  2,  4  f.;  I  Tim.  1,  10  f.;  4,  6;  6,  3.12  f.  20;  II 
Tim.  1,  13  f.;  3,  10.14;  Hbws.  2,  1-4;  3,  14;  5,  11-6,  12;  10,  23;  13,  7;  I  Pet.  1, 
12.23-25;  Jude  4.17;  II  Pet.  1,  12  f.;  3,  1  ff.;  I  John  1,  1  ff.;  2,  7.24;  3,  23. 


386    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

One  other  mode  of  parrying  this  charge  of  perverting  the  Gospel 
was  still  available:  The  claim  that  their  teaching  was  a  develop- 
ment of  the  elementary  beginnings  of  the  Apostolic  tradition  by 
their  superior  revelations,  visions,  gnosis  and  prophecy,  as  a 
means  of  advancing  understanding  of  the  original  revelation  of 
Christ.  It  is  in  the  last  period  of  the  New  Testament  age  that  we 
meet  with  the  most  concrete  allusion  to  this  claim  of  progress  and 
advance.  The  description  of  the  false  teachers  in  II  John,  9  is, 
*  every  one  that  advances,  wpoayosv,  and  abides  not  in  the  didache 
of  Christ.'  In  this  contrasted  statement  the  term  does  not  mean 
'taketh  the  lead'  as  in  RVM,  i.,  e.,  with  Alford,  as  teacher;  nor  is 
it  illustrated  in  III  John  9  by  <^tXo7rpa?r€ucoi/;  but  as  in  the  text 
of  RV  it  means  'goeth  onward,  i.  e.,  from  the  original  didache  of 
Christ,'  or  with  Windisch,  'going  beyond  the  Canon  of  the  Truth'. 
It  is  further  illustrated  in  I  John  2,  7.8,  where  in  cohtrast  to  the 
errorists  he  writes  no  new  commandment,  but  the  old  command- 
ment ye  had  from  the  beginning,  the  word  ye  hear,  which  is  yet 
ever  new. 

The  various  earUer  calls  to  hold  fast  to  the  original  teaching  like- 
wise reveal  that  their  occasion  was  a  new  teaching  which  could  only 
hope  for  a  hearing  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  supplanting  the 
gospel  but  was  an  advance  and  spiritual  development  of  it.  The 
Pastorals  seem  to  treat  such  progress  as  the  watchword  of  the 
gnosticizing  teachers.  Three  times  in  II  Tim.  reference  is  made  to 
their  advance,  irpoKdirTtiv.  First  it  is  denounced  as  such  a  devel- 
opment, 2,  16,  as  will  advance  to  greater  measures  of  ungodliness. 
Its  logos  will  spread  as  does  gangrene.  Next,  3,  9,  it  will  not  ad- 
vance further,  because  of  its  exposure  as  folly.  And  in  3,  13,  its 
advance  shall  be  towards  the  worse,  deceiving  and  being  deceived. 
The  parallelism  to  II  John  2,  9,  extends  besides  to  the  antithesis  of 
this  vaunted  development  to  abiding  in  the  primitive  teaching. 
The  advance  in  2, 16  is  contrasted,  vs.  17,  with  the  firm  foundation 
of  God;  in  3,  9,  with  Timothy's  following  the  Apostle's  teaching, 
faith  and  life,  vs.  10;  in  3,  13,  with  the  call  to  Timothy  to  abide  in 
the  things  he  learned  and  has  been  assured  of,  which  will  be  the 
base  of  the  Evangelist's  true  irpoKoirrj,  I  Tim.  4, 14:  an  advance  that 
will  be  manifest  to  all.  We  could,  moreover,  recognize  this  boast  of 
an  alleged  development  of  the  gospel,  from  the  general  earlier 
references  to  the  errorists'  disparagements  of  Paul  as  insufficient, 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  387 

weak  in  the  freedom  and  power  of  the  Spirit,  and  therefore 
as  being  only  able  to  feed  his  converts  with  milk  and  not  with 
meat. 

This  claim  of  a  spiritual  development  was  met  on  every  occasion 
by  the  exposure  of  the  false  teaching  as  being  in  no  sense  a  pro- 
gressive growth  from  Christian  principles  or  an  advancing  structure 
upon  a  Christian  foundation,  but  as  a  subversal  of  that  foundation 
and  as  a  development  from  principles  contrary  to  the  Christian 
faith.  Gnosticism  in  the  New  Testament  age  could  indeed  meet  all 
the  famiUar  seven  notes  of  a  genuine  development,  as  formulated 
by  Newman,  Development  of  Christian  Doctrine,  ch.  5.  But  it  was 
a  development  and  advance  of  pre-Christian  Jewish  gnosticism, 
not  of  the  primitive  Gospel.^*  In  the  place,  therefore,  of  such  a 
spurious  development  there  is  found  a  positive  presentation  of  the 
true  basis,  principle  and  means  of  growth  and  upbuilding  of 
Christian  Ufe  and  truth.  Its  one  unchanging  foundation  is  Christ, 
in  whom  the  final  and  complete  revelation  has  been  given  once 
for  all.  In  believers,  however,  there  is  to  be  an  increasing  ap- 
propriation and  appHcations  of  this  one  revelation  by  growth  in 
the  knowledge  and  experience  of  it  in  all  the  relations  of  life;  and 
specifically  as  a  means  of  establishment  in  the  primary  bebaiosis 
of  faith  on  occasions  of  attack  upon  it.^®  Hence  in  the  polemic 
sections  of  the  Epistles  we  meet  with  a  direct  interest  in  the 

1*  Bousset,  op.  cU.,  p.  7,  following  Gruppe,  denies  that  gnosticism  was  a 
developing  force  either  in  the  general  history  of  human  culture  or  specifically 
n  the  history  of  Christianity.  'Gnosticism  is  not  a  mighty  intellectual 
phenomenon  pressmg  onwards,  but  rather  one  that  lags  behind,  a  reaction  of 
the  ancient  syncretism  against  the  upwards  aspiring  universal  Religion.  And 
the  outstanding  leaders  of  the  system  in  later  time,  even  with  the  illumination 
of  the  Greek  spirit,  are  not  men  of  the  future  but  people  of  the  past,  who 
sought  to  maintain  a  lost  cause  by  toilsome  and  even  by  not  intellectually 
inconsiderable  compromises.' 

^'  Westcott,  Hebrews,  pp.  4  and  7:  'The  revelation  in  Christ  the  Son  is  per- 
fect both  in  substance  and  form.  The  Incarnation  and  the  Ascension  include 
absolutely  all  that  is  wrought  out  slowly  and  appropriated  little  by  little  in 
the  experience  of  later  hfe.  All  later  experience  is  the  appointed  method  by 
which  the  teaching  of  the  Incarnation  is  progressively  mastered  TToXu/xepws 
Koi  iroXuTpSwoos.  This  contrast  between  the  absolute  aspect  of  Christ's 
work  and  its  progressive  appropriation  by  men  occurs  throughout  Scripture.' 
For  the  relation  of  development  to  the  faith  once  delivered,  see  J.  B.  Mayor, 
St.  Jude  and  II  St.  Peter,  pp.  65-69. 


388    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

development  of  faith  and  Christian  life  on  the  foundation  of  the 
Apostolic  Gospel.  The  call  to  stand  stedfast  and  immovable 
against  attacks  is  accompanied  by  the  call  to  growth  and  to 
abound  in  the  work  of  the  Lord. 

This  advance  is  expressed  in  a  variety  of  familiar  figures  resting 
ultimately  on  the  teachings  of  Christ:  upbuilding  of  a  spiritual 
house  upon  an  immovable  foundation;  growth  and  fruitfulness 
from  a  divinely  implanted  seed,  or  as  branches  of  a  living  vine; 
growth  and  maturity  from  a  new  birth  as  members  of  the  living 
body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head.  As  the  basis  of  the  Christian 
life  is  divine,  so  in  all  these  figures  the  principle  of  its  growth  is  a 
divine  conmiunion  in  which  faith  grows  exceedingly,  love  and  hope 
abound,  and  fellowship  is  growing  up  in  all  things  unto  the  full- 
ness of  Christ.  In  controversial  sections  especially,  one  of  the 
means  of  establishment  by  such  growth  is  the  possession  of  a 
true  gnosis  and  of  the  principle  of  its  development  and  consum- 
mation, given  in  the  Gospel  and  in  the  spiritual  life  believers 
have  received  upon  their  acceptance  of  it. 

The  character  and  function  of  this  Christian  gnosis  is  presented 
in  works  on  New  Testament  theology;  ^°  and  in  recent  years  the 
understanding  of  the  topic  has  been  advanced  by  the  discussions 
concerning  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  the  Hellenistic  mystery 
religions  with  their  characteristic  feature  of  gnosis. ^^  Reitzen- 
stein,  while  recognizing  Z.  N.  T.  W.,  p.  21,  at  least  an  indirect  in- 
fluence by  Greek  philosophy  upon  the  formation  of  Paul's  con- 
cepts and  thoughts,  advocates  most  definitely  the  thesis  that  the 
Apostle  adopted  essentially  the  language  of  the  mystery  religions, 
and  that  in  the  New  Testament  references  to  gnosis  and  allied 
terms,  they  are  used  in  the  same  mystical  sense  as  in  the  contem- 
porary syncretism.     *Paul  was  not  the  first,  yet  the  greatest 

*o  Peine,  p.  443  flf.,  604  flf.,  Holtzmann,  I,  476  ff.,  Gnosis  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment; the  relation  of  N.  T.  teachings  to  the  controUing  features  of  the  move- 
ment here  characterized  being  developed  in  special  sections  of  vol.  II.  Sim- 
ilarly in  Pfleiderer's  Urchristenthum,  Syncretism  and  Gnosticism,  II,  p.  73  ff., 
is  followed  by  discussion  of  gnosis  in  the  N.  T.  Writings  regarded  by  him  as 
post-PauUne.  The  mystical  element  in  gnosis  in  earlier  Pauline  Epistles  is 
briefly  treated  in  I,  279  flf.  Weinel,  §§  74;  80,  4;  103.  B.  Weiss,  §§  92  b;  102; 
149. 

'1  Peine,  op.  cU.,  pp.  7-16,  and  the  bibliography  prefixed  to  chap.  7  of 
Schweitaer's  Paul  and  his  Interpreters. 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  389 

gnostic/  p.  56.22  j^  jjo^g  }^qq^  further  claimed,  not  indeed  by 
Reitzenstein  but  by  various  writers,  cp.  Feine,  p.  7  ff.,  that  Chris- 
tianity is  itself  one  of  the  mystery  religions,  a  synthesis  of  the 
oriental  religions  of  redemption,  due  to  Paul,  either  upon  the 
Gospel  and  the  mysticism  of  the  contact  of  the  Antiochene 
mission  with  religious  movements  in  Asia  Minor  or  Greece,  or 
even  earlier  owing  to  his  previous  acquaintance  with  these  re- 
ligions and  their  literature. 

The  many  points  of  similarity  between  Pauline  and  syncretistic 
mysticism  are  capable,  however,  of  a  different  construction  of 
the  relation  of  the  competing  religious  movements.  Lake's  state- 
ments, concerned  primarily  with  the  historical  facts  of  the  propa- 
ganda of  the  Gospel,  are  especially  suggestive:  in  Earlier  Epistles 
of  St.  Pauly  p.  215,  'Christianity  has  not  borrowed  from  the 
mystery  religions,  because  it  was  at  least  in  Europe  a  mystery 
religion  itself.'  Yet,  p.  92,  in  the  matter  of  eschatology  'there 
was  originally  a  fundamental  difference  between  Christianity 
and  the  mystery  religions.'  The  Thessalonians  'had  accepted 
Christianity  as  something  different  from  the  mystery  religions. 
But  in  this  respect  they  offer  a  contrast  to  some  of  the  Corinthian 
Christians,'  who,  pp.  215-219,  advocated  the  views  of  future  life 
associated  with  the  mystery  religions,  and  who  yet,  p.  219,  'do  not 
understand  the  true  nature  of  the  Christian  mystery.'  These 
statements  help  us  to  recognize  botii  an  essential  mystical  element 
in  Christianity  and  its  distinction  from  the  mysticism  and  myster- 
ies of  hellenistic  religions;  and  more  definitely  that  the  occasion 
of  emphasizing  the  true  character  of  the  Christian  mystery  was 
the  opposition  of  Jewish  gnostic  Christians  in  Corinth,  who  were 
attempting  to  assimilate  their  syncretism  of  Judaism  and  hellen- 
istic mysticism  with  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

In  direct  discussion  of  Reitzenstein's  view  of  the  correspondence 
of  Pauline  and  hellenistic  mysticism  and  gnosis,  we  have  on  the 
one  hand  Schweitzer's  opposition  on  the  ground  that  the  Apostle's 
teaching  was  fundamentally  eschatological  and  distinct  from 
many  essential   features  of  the  mystery  religions;  ^^  and  on  the 

'2  R.  Reitzenstein,  Die  Hellenistischen  Mysterienreligionen,  1910,  pp.  43  and 
112  fif. 

*'  A.  Schweitzer,  Paul  and  his  Interpreters  chap.  7,  Paulinism  and  com- 
parative religions,  to  which  chapter  Wemle,  Theolog.  LUztg.f  1914,  516  f., 


390    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

other  hand  such  general  criticisms  as  those  of  Feine,  Kennedy 
and  Krebs.^^  Accepting  the  results  of  Reitzenstein,  supple- 
mented by  Norden  and  others,  that  the  long  recognized  employ- 
ment in  the  New  Testament  of  numerous  terms  and  ideas 
connected  with  gnosis,  is  based  not  on  purely  hellenic  but  on  hellen- 
istic  and  syncretistic  usage,  and  that  numerous  threads  of  rela- 
tion connect  hellenistic  and  Pauline  concepts  and  terminology, 
they  yet  maintain  that  in  the  New  Testament  these  terms  are 
used  with  a  distinct  content,  and  at  essential  points  with  a  totally 
different  content;  and,  therefore,  that  statements  made  by  Paul 
and  John  in  such  terms,  do  not  prove  their  adoption  of  the  gnostic 
mystical  conceptions  expressed  in  similar  terms. 

It  is  conceivable  as  these  writers  state  that  the  Gospel  preachers, 
in  an  age  when  syncretistic  religious  terms  were  current,  would 
use  them  to  introduce,  or  to  secure  an  understanding  of,  the 
Gospel  by  means  of  these  terms  specially  defined.  But  in  fact 
there  are  no  indications  of  such  a  method  in  the  references  in  the 
Acts  to  propaganda  among  the  heathen.  At  Lystra  the  heathen 
addressed  are  interested  in  the  hellenic  gods,  at  Athens  they  are 
representatives  of  Greek  philosophy;  and  in  both  cases  are  ap- 
proached on  the  lines  of  the  usual  Jewish  propaganda  preaching. 
There  is  no  suggestion  of  the  use  of  mystery  terms  in  the  primi- 
tive preaching  in  the  references  to  it  in  I  Thess.  and  Rom.  1,  18  f. 
Such  terms  become  especially  prominent  in  Epistles  or  sections 
of  them  marked  by  polemic  against  gnosticizing  errorists.  And 
we  conclude  from  the  foregoing  studies  that  the  occasion  of  their 
use  was,  negatively,  the  need  of  denying  the  possession  by  Jewish 
gnostic  Christians  of  the  gnosis,  wisdom,  illumination,  power, 
freedom  and  perfection  which  they  falsely  claimed.  And  posi- 
tively, these  familiar  terms,  which  in  many  cases  were  closely 
related  to  fundamental  religious  terms  and  concepts  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  to  Gospel  teaching  based  upon  it,  would  obviously 
be  also  used  with  any  necessary  specifications  to  express  the  true 

assigns  a  real  and  very  serious  importance.  Reitzenstein  replied  to  this 
chapter  in  Z.  N.  T.  W.,  1912,  p.  1  f:  Religionsgeschichte  und  Eschatologie. 
"  P.  Feine,  Theologie  des  N.  Ts.,  pp.  15.247.291.313.559.  H.  A.  A.  Ken- 
nedy, St.  Paid  and  the  Mystery-Religions,  chaps.  4  ff.  E.  Krebs,  Das  rel. 
geschichUiche  Problem  des  Urchristenthums,  chaps.  5,  6,  8.  See  also  C.  Clemen, 
Der  Einfluss  d.  Mysterien-religionen  auf  d.  (Uteste  Christenihum. 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  391 

gnosis,  mystery  and  mystical  elements  of  the  Gospel,  in  and  by 
which  readers  influenced  by  the  false  teachers  were  to  be  estab- 
lished. In  this  positive  establishment,  therefore,  we  find  the  con- 
stant emphasis  on  the  initial  preaching  and  experience  as  a 
revelation  of  the  true  mystery  of  God,  as  a  real  redemption  re- 
ceived in  a  mystical  certainty  of  faith  and  effecting  a  direct  union 
with  God. 

The  term  most  intimately  related  to  this  bebaiosis  of  faith,  and 
probably  antedating  colUsion  with  the  errorists,  is  ^  epignosis  of  the 
truth.'  This  statement  involves  of  course  the  rejection  of  the 
familiar  view  that  epignosis  is  used  in  the  relevant  New  Testa- 
ment passages  as  a  higher  stage  of  knowledge  by  which  the  Chris- 
tian gnosis  excels  that  of  the  false  teachers,  or  as  a  higher  spiritual 
knowledge  surpassing  their  assumed  intellectualism.  We  have 
already  seen  that  this  was  not  the  New  Testament  method:  a 
false  gnosis  was  not  confuted  by  a  higher  gnosis,  but  by  a  real 
gnosis.  Further,  the  traditional  view  though  maintained  by 
Lightfoot,  that  epignosis  means  '  an  advance  on  gnosis, '  as  being 
larger,  more  thorough  and  complete,  or  as  being  perfection  of  knowl- 
edge, has  been  shown  by  Robinson,  Ephesians,  248  ff.,  to  be  un- 
tenable. His  conclusion  is  that  gnosis  is  the  wider  word  and  ex- 
presses knowledge  in  the  fullest  sense  that  can  be  given  to  the  word; 
and  that  epignosis  is  knowledge  directed  towards  a  particular  ob- 
ject, perceiving,  discerning,  recognizing.^^  It  may  be  added  that  it 
is  therefore  not  used  in  the  New  Testament  to  express  a  knowledge 
fuller  or  more  advanced  than  gnosis.    Rom.  1,  28  does  not  view  the 

28  Mayor,  St.  Jude  and  II  St.  Peter,  pp.  171-174,  agrees  with  Robinson's 
distinction,  but  still  thinks  Lightfoot  is  justified  in  claiming  an  intensive 
force,  'a  closeness  and  intimacy  of  knowledge.'  But  in  the  New  Testament 
this  is  the  result  of  its  relation  to  faith  and  not  to  gnosis,  as  being  an  advance 
upon  it.  In  the  only  place,  I  Cor.  13,  12,  where  the  two  terms  seem  to  be  con- 
trasted as  to  degree,  Robinson  points  out  that  yivoxTKO)  could,  as  in  Gal.  4, 
9  and  I  Cor.  8,  3,  be  used  in  both  clauses;  and  that  the  thought  of  fuller  knowl- 
edge is  expressed  not  by  eTrt,yi,p6)<TK0)  but  by  the  contrast  with  e/c  (xepovs  and 
the  defining  KadoJS  clause.  Less  satisfactory  is  his  admission  that  the  full 
sounding  word  has  been  chosen  to  heighten  the  effect  at  the  close.  It  would 
rather  seem  that  like  the  use  of  (TCOTrjpla  both  for  the  initial  salvation  and  also 
for  its  actual  final  consummation,  so  here  einyvoxTOfxat,  refers  to  the  initial 
epignosis  as  finally  perfected  by  growth  in  faith,  hope  and  love  through  in- 
creasing gnosis  imtil  we  see  face  to  face  even  as  we  have  been  known  by  God. 


392    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

heathen  as  not  approving  to  have  God  in  advanced  knowledge,  but 
states  then  when  the  gnosis  of  vs.  18  ff.  was  manifested  to  them, 
they  refused  to  recognize,  acknowledge  and  appropriate  it.  The 
references  in  the  Pastorals  and  Hebrews  to  epignosis  of  the  truth  ^® 
are  concerned  not  with  advanced  gnosis,  but  with  the  initial 
recognition,  acknowledgment  and  profession  of  the  Gospel  and 
with  the  inner  experiences  of  the  truth  of  its  promises  of  forgive- 
ness and  of  divine  conmiunion  in  the  new  Ufe  in  the  Spirit  com- 
municated at  baptism. 

Dibelius,  whose  special  view  will  be  stated  later,  understands  the 
phrase  to  refer  '  to  becoming  or  being  a  Christian. '  And  he  agrees 
that  it  is  a  technical  term  referring  to  instruction  for  baptism  as 
both  A.  Seeberg  and  Windisch  state  in  their  conmient  on  Hbws. 
10,  26.^^  In  favor  of  this  view  that  it  was  a  technical  primitive 
term  for  the  initial  instruction  and  spiritual  experience  of  converts, 
is  the  fact  that  it  and  varied  equivalent  expressions  appear  in 
direct  sequence  and  in  relation  to  the  initial  faith  in  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel.^  It  would  seem  also  that  various  other  passages  in 
the  Epistles  where  epignosis  and  its  verb  are  used,  reflect  familiar- 
ity with  the  phrase  *  epignosis  of  the  truth, '  the  initial  instruction 
and  conviction  of  faith,  as  the  occasion  of  their  formulation.  It  is 
therefore  clear  that  such  initial  epignosis  was  not  an  advance  upon, 
or  completion  of,  the  false  gnosis;  and  that  as  being  initial  knowl- 

^  I  Tim.  2,  4;  4,  3;  II  Tim.  2,  25;  3,  7;  Tit.  1,  1;  Hbws.  10,  26. 

"  M.  Dibelius,  N.  T.  Studien  f.  g.  Heinrid,  1914,  p.  177  flf.:  *Ewlyvcoai,s 
iiXrjdelas.  A.  Seeberg,  Hb.  bf.,  117,  'The  complete  knowledge  of  truth 
took  place  in  baptism  in  which  the  Christian  made  profession  of  the  Christian 
doctrine.*  In  his  Katechismus,  p.  261  n.,  he  adds  that  'the  truth'  probably 
refers  not  merely  to  the  formula  of  faith,  but  to  the  entire  content  of  the 
catechism. 

« I  Tim.  2,  4.7;  4,  3;  Tit.  1,  1;  Ephes.  4,  13;  cp.  1,  13  ff.  and  4,  20-24;  Col. 
1,  5-10;  Phm.  6;  Hbws.  10,  22-26;  II  Pet.  1,  3-8;  cp.  II  Cor.  13,  5.  Similarly  in 
the  Apostolic  Fathers:  in  Clement  59,  2.3,  the  initial  call  from  darkness  to  light 
is  explained  as  being  from  agnosia  to  epignosis  of  the  glory  of  God's  name; 
and  is  followed  by  the  prayer  for  hearts  thus  illuminated  cl$  t6  yiv6i<TMiv 
God.  Polycarp,  Mar.  14,  1,  prays  to  the  Lord  through  whose  Son  '  we  received 
riiv  Trepl  aov  iiriyvojaiv.  In  Hermas,  Sim.  9.16,  7  the  dead  to  whom  the 
Apostles  preached  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God  and  who  were  baptized  by 
them  'were  made  ahve  and  iwiyvoiXJav  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God.'  Cp. 
also  Diognetus,  10,  1-3. 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  393 

edge,  we  should  anticipate  its  growth  by  means  of  a  developing 
gnosis. 

We  have  already  recognized  in  discussing  bebaiosis,  the  mystical 
element  in  such  epignosis  of  the  truth,  although  the  phrase  was  not 
originally  framed  in  rivalry  to  the  gnosis  of  the  mystery  religions. 
For  the  faith  which  issued  in  epignosis  was  a  response  to  a  divine 
illumination  effecting  a  direct  certainty  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel 
and  an  access  with  all  the  saints  to  the  Father  through  the  in- 
dwelling Christ  in  one  Spirit.  In  principle  and  potentially  this 
mystical  union  was  assured  in  the  initial  epignosis,  of  full  fruition : 
the  witness  of  Christ,  I  Cor.  1,  6-9,  was  confirmed,  ejScjSatd)^?; 
in  them  so  that  they  came  behind  in  no  gift,  waiting  for  the  revela- 
tion of  Christ  at  the  end.  God  who  called  them  into  the  fellowship 
of  his  Son  is  faithful  and  will  also  confirm  them  unreprovable  in 
the  day  of  the  Lord.^  As  the  epignosis  is  the  recognition  and 
appropriation  of  salvation,  it  too  like  (TccTrjpia  has  still  to  be 
wrought  out  and  consummated.^  As  the  work  and  gift  of  the 
Spirit,  it  is  the  earnest  of  perfected  salvation  and  union,  sight  face 
to  face,  in  which  the  epignosis  at  conversion  will  have  become 
knowledge  of  God  as  we  have  been  known  of  him.  This  relation 
between  the  initial  and  final  stages  of  salvation  and  epignosis  is 
illustrated  by  statements  of  Caird  in  his  discussion  of  religious 
life.^°  It  is  of  its  very  essence  that  the  Infinite  has  ceased  to  be 
merely  a  far  off  virion  of  spiritual  attainment,  and  has  become  a 
spiritual  reality.  In  that  act  which  constitutes  the  beginning  of 
the  religious  life,  call  it  faith,  or  trust  or  self-surrender,  there  is 

^  Weinel,  p.  399,  retains  the  view  that  epignosis  is  used  in  the  later  Epistles 
to  express  the  believers'  conception  of  Christianity  as  the  true  and  full  gnosis. 
Less  positively,  B.  Weiss,  128.d.n.8;  in  II  Peter  'perhaps  in  allusion  to  this 
germinating  error,  as  similarly  in  the  Pastorals,  Christianity  is  conceived 
preferably  as  epignosis.'  On  the  other  hand,  DibeUus,  op.  cit.,  pp.  186,  189, 
regarding  Ephes.  and  Pastorals  as  post-Pauline,  and  eliminating  references 
to  epignosis  in  the  introductions  to  Pauline  Epistles  as  belonging  to  the 
schematic  formulation,  considers  it  as  a  leveling  down  and  popularization 
of  the  mystic  terminology  of  Paul,  to  protect  the  Church  against  the  dangers 
of  a  one-sided  mysticism  and  the  related  divorce  between  religion  and  moral- 
ity; and  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  the  union  between  mystic  individualists 
and  the  beUeving  congregations.  To  him  epignosis  of  the  truth  is  therefore 
knowledge  proceeding  from  sound  doctrine  and  applied  in  life. 

'"John  Caird,  Introduction  to  the  Philosophy  of  Rdigian,  1880,  pp.  294- 
299. 


394    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

involved  the  identification  of  the  finite  with  a  Ufe  which  is  eternally 
reaUzed.  It  is  the  elevation  of  the  spirit  into  a  region  where  hope 
passes  into  certitude,  struggle  into  conquest,  interminable  effort 
and  endeavor  into  peace  and  rest.  It  is  true  that  reUgious  Ufe  is 
progressive;  but  it  is  not  progress  towards  but  mthin  the  sphere  of 
the  Infinite.  It  is  the  endeavor,  by  the  constant  exercise  of  spirit- 
ual activity,  to  appropriate  that  infinite  inheritance  of  which  we 
are  already  in  possession.  The  whole  future  of  the  reUgious  life 
is  given  in  its  beginning,  but  it  is  given  implicitly  as  a  principle 
which  has  yet  to  unfold  its  hidden  riches  and  its  all  subduing 
power.  Evil,  error,  imperfection  are  already  virtually  as  they 
will  be  actuaUy  suppressed  and  annuUed,  and  in  the  very 
process  of  being  annulled  they  become  the  means  of  spiritual 
progress. 

This  initial  mystical  knowledge  and  union  is  therefore  to  be 
developed,  and  by  gnosis,  in  the  growth  of  the  whole  personaUty 
amid  the  experiences  of  a  life  of  faith  in  aU  human  relationships, 
unto  the  fuUness  of  Christ.  Reitzenstein's  statements,  p.  38,  con- 
cerning hellenistic  gnosis  will  enable  us  to  note  the  similarities  of 
syncretistic  and  Christian  views  of  it,  and  the  occasion  for  the  dis- 
criminations and  polemic  of  the  New  Testament  writers:  'The 
supreme  sight,  O^a,  of  God  which  renders  us  divine  and  gives  sal- 
vation is  called  yvdvai  Btbv.  Gnosis  is  a  direct  Uving  experience,  a 
grace-gift,  x^P^^'Mci)  of  God.  It  illuminates  the  man  and  at  the 
same  time  transforms  his  substance.  It  exalts  him  through  the 
body  up  into  the  world  of  the  supersensual.  It  is  a  kind  of  a  new 
life,  the  highest  perfection  of  the  soul,  the  emancipation  from  the 
body,  the  path  to  heaven,  the  means  of  salvation,  the  true  worship 
of  God  and  piety,  as  agnosia  of  God  is  always  love  for  the  body  and 
sin.   He  who  has  gnosis  is  already  as  man,  ^e tos ' . 

First  recalUng  that  the  New  Testament  references  are  not  to  a 
direct  conflict  with  any  of  the  mystery  reUgions  but  to  errorists' 
attempts  to  assimilate  these  ideas  with  the  Gospel,  we  find  that 
whatever  similarities  may  appear  between  the  character  and  goal 
of  the  mystery  gnosis  and  the  initial  and  perfected  Christian 
epignosis,  the  Christian  writers  distinctly  emphasize  their  essen- 
tial contrasts.  While  syncretistic  gnosis  professes  to  offer  a  revela- 
tion in  the  cult,  symbols  and  mysteries  of  the  dying  and  rising 
nature  Gods,  or  in  the  visions  and  revelations  of  the  Lord  to  the 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  395 

errorists,  II  Cor.  12,  1,  Christians  possess  a  revelation  of  God's 
eternal  purpose  of  redemption  and  consimimation  in  the  historic 
life  and  work  and  heavenly  ministry  of  Christ,  which  is  proclaimed 
and  taught  to  every  man  in  all  wisdom.  It  is  not  dea,  sight  of  God, 
but  is  illumination  proceeding  from  the  gnosis  of  the  glory  of  God 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  image  of  God,  II  Cor.  4,  6.4.  This 
illumination  of  gnosis  is  not  a  theosophical  knowledge  attained  in 
ecstatic  vision  divorced  from  our  cognitive  activities,  but  is  coin- 
cident with  the  renewal  of  the  7rj'eu)Lia  rod  voos  and  with  the 
illumination  of  the  vorj ^ara  and  of  the  eyes  of  the  heart.  Neither  is 
it  divorced  from  ethical  tasks  and  duties  in  our  individual  and 
corporate  hfe.  Hence  it  is  not,  as  in  the  rival  systems,  the  basis  of 
claims  of  perfection.  The  Christian  has  still  to  work  out  his  salva- 
tion, yet  with  God  continuously  energizing  in  him  to  will  and  to  do 
in  furtherance  of  his  redemptive  purpose.  Gnosis  is  likewise,  as 
with  the  errorists  and  in  the  mystery  rehgions,  an  assurance  of 
immortality;  yet  not  as  a  present  possession  and  as  an  attained 
goal,  but  as  the  full  assurance  of  hope  that  Christians  whose  Ufe  is 
now  hid  with  God  in  Christ,  will,  when  he  shall  be  manifested,  also 
with  him  be  manifested  in  glory. 

Correlative  therefore  to  this  selection  of  fundamental  contrasts, 
is  the  distinct  function  of  gnosis  in  the  ApostoUc  teaching  as  to  the 
development  of  the  initial  epignosis  to  its  full  consummation.  The 
objects  to  which  gnosis  is  directed  are  the  whole  contents  of  revela- 
tion appropriated  by  faith.  It  is  the  developing  'penetration  into 
the  deeper  grounds  and  the  wider  consequences  of  the  great  Chris- 
tian redemptive  facts,  and  a  still  farther  appUcation  of  the  truth  of 
redemption  to  the  practical  life  with  the  varied  wealth  of  its  con- 
crete relations,'  Weiss,  N.  T.  Theologij,  102,  d.  As  such,  it  is  how- 
ever not  simply  intellectual,  but  is  an  activity  of  the  whole  person- 
ality; and  much  more,  of  this  personality  in  communion  with  God, 
illuminating,  inspiring,  invigorating  the  renewed  man  whose  life 
is  in  Christ  and  in  the  Spirit.  Thus  growth  in  such  gnosis  has  a 
mystical  character  as  being  deepening  imion  of  all  the  activities  of 
our  personahty  with  the  indwelling  Christ  of  God.  The  result  of 
this  indwelling,  Ephes.  3,  16  ff.  is  that  we  may  know  the  love  of 
Christ  which  passes  knowledge  and  be  filled  unto  all  the  fullness 
of  God;  and  in  Philippians  3, 10  ff.  this  fuller  and  developing  ap- 
prehension is  by  knowing  the  dying  and  risen  Christ  in  deepening 


396    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

personal  experience,  communion  and  conformation  to  his  death  in 
order  to  attain  unto  the  resurrection.^^ 

Hence  this  increasing  personal  apprehension  of  the  revealed 
mysteries  of  the  divine  love  and  grace  is  a  means  of  development  of 
a  'faith  which  groweth  exceedingly.'  While  the  mystery  of  God, 
Rom.  16,  25  f .,  Ephes.  3,  3,  has  been  completely  revealed  by  Christ 
in  whom  are  all  the  treasures  of  sophia  and  gnosis,  hidden;  and 
while  in  the  Apostolic  Gospel  the  whole  counsel  of  God  has  been 
delivered  to  faith,  there  is  still  to  be  a  growing  and  deeper  recog- 
nition of  it  both  in  sophia  and  gnosis.  The  distinction  between 
these  gifts  is  presented  in  divergent  forms  in  the  commentaries.^^ 
But  a  comparison  of  the  passages  where  they  appear  together 
supports  the  view  of  B.  Weiss,  N.  T.  Theology ,  92,  c;  102  that 
sophia  in  this  combination  refers  to  increasing  recognition  of  the 
fullness  of  the  revelation  in  Christ  given  in  apocalypses  and  special 
forms  of  prophecy;  while  gnosis  expresses  the  developing  appre- 
hension of  the  relations,  signification  and  practical  applications  of 
all  the  revealed  mysteries  of  the  divine  life,  will  and  purpose.^'   An 

"B.  Weiss,  The  Religion  of  the  N.  T.,  chap.  16.1;  N.  T.  Theology,  102.d; 
116.C.  Weinel,  op.  cii.,  p.  363.  Feine,  op.  ci^.,  p.  443: 'Knowledge,  inasmuch 
as  its  real  nature  is  not  of  a  theoretical  but  of  a  practically  rehgious  character, 
an  energizing  and  effectual  experience  of  God  and  Christ,  is  essentially  the 
same  as  faith.  Yet  it  is  more  definitely  a  deeper  penetration  into  the  activi- 
ties, revelations  and  mysteries  included  in  Christian  faith.  Its  task  is  to 
educe  and  develop  the  content  of  faith,  and  to  determine  it  more  definitely 
according  to  its  essential  character,  against  attacks  and  false  tendencies.'  In 
the  Prison  Letters  when  opposing  false  Christological  doctrine,  the  need  also 
of  full  intellectual  understanding  is  recognized.  '  Yet  Paul  does  not  commit 
the  mistake  of  desiring  to  convince  by  an  intellectual  method,  but  places  the 
emphasis  on  the  experience  of  what  they  have  enjoyed  in  imion  with  Christ, 
and  of  what  redemptive  facts  God  has  accomplished  in  Christ.  At  this 
stage,  union  of  hfe  with  Christ  desires  also  a  fully  corresponding  knowledge 
of  Christ;  the  right  connection  with  him  does  not  exist  without  appropriation 
of  the  truth,  which  also  is  mediated  spiritually.'  On  p.  418  he  can  agree  with 
Reitzenstein,  pp.  39,126  that  in  I  Cor.  14,  6,  gnosis  is  used  in  the  technical 
mystical  significance  of  intuitive  knowledge  effected  through  the  self-disclosure 
of  God,  with  which,  however,  is  joined  sophia,  regarded  by  Peine  as  clear 
knowledge  of  the  understanding  contrasted  with  intuitive  mystical  knowledge. 

"  A  brief  summary  and  discussion  of  them  is  given  by  J.  Glool,  Der  Heilige 
Geist  i.  d.  HeilsverhUndigung  des  Pavlxis,  pp.  331-334. 

"  Comparison  of  all  the  passages  in  the  Epistles  where  sophia  is  used  shows 
its  usual  connection  on  the  one  hand  with  the  revelation  of  the  mystery  of 
God  in  Christ,  including  the  eschatological  consummation;  and  on  the  other 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  397 

illustration  of  the  development  of  faith  by  means  of  this  sophia 
and  gnosis  is  found  in  Ephes.  3, 3  ff . :  the  mystery,  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ,  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God,  is  made  known  to 
Paul  by  revelation.  His  own  understanding  of  it,  avveais,  can  be 
perceived  by  what  he  has  in  brief  written  in  chaps.  2  and  3:  the 
developed  doctrine  of  Christ's  person  and  work  and  of  his  relation 
to  the  Church.  On  this  basis  is  his  prayer,  14  ff.,  that  the  readers 
may  be  filled  unto  all  the  fullness  of  God,  and  this  through  the  in- 
dwelUng  of  Christ  by  faith  enabling  their  apprehension  and  gnosis 
of  the  revealed  mystery  of  the  knowledge-surpassing  love  of  God 
in  Christ,  cp.  1,  8  f.  The  doctrinal  sections  of  the  other  Epistles 
likewise  teach  their  readers  in  all  wisdom  and  gnosis  concerning 
the  mysteries  of  faith,  thereby  leading  to  its  establishment  and 
growth.  Moffatt,  Introd.,  p.  443,  so  speaks  of  Hebrews :  it  is  a  word 
of  gnosis,  more  on  the  lines  of  Paul's  gnosis,  I  Cor.  12,  8,  'intended 
to  meet  the  special  practical  needs  of  the  church  by  furnishing  the 
readers  with  conceptions  of  christology  which  will  brace  them 
against  apostasy  and  discouragement. ' 

Deepening  apprehension  of  the  mysteries  of  faith  in  communion 
with  God  in  Christ  is  essentially  a  growth  of  knowledge  of  the 
divine  love  awaking  our  returning  love.  In  contrast  to  antinomian 
freedom  based  on  false  gnosis,  this  union  of  reciprocated  love  in- 
volves conformity  to  his  will  for  our  consecration  in  a  moral  life  of 
love  fulfilling  all  law.  And  the  love  in  which  we  are  rooted  and 
grounded  is  still  to  abound  in  its  original  epignosis  by  ataOrjais, 
perception,  and  moral  discernment.  'As  wise,'  especially  by 
revelation  of  the  last  things,  we  are  'to  know  and  understand' 
what  the  will  of  the  Lord  is;  to  approve  the  good,  the  acceptable 
and  perfect  will  of  God,  until.  Col.  4, 12,  we  stand  perfect  and  fully 
assured  in  it.  Such  perfection  in  all  the  will  of  God,  1,  9,  is  to  walk 
worthily  of  the  Lord  unto  all  pleasing,  is  a  fruitfulness  in  everj^ 
good  work,  an  increasing  in  the  original  epignosis  of  his  will,  and 
definitely  in  all  wisdom  and  spiritual  understanding.'^ 

hand  with  gnosis  or  the  phases  of  it  expressed  in  crvveais,  spiritual  (TVV€<Tts, 
<l)p6prj(TLS.  A  compressed  phrase  in  Revelation  indicates  the  same  relation  of 
the  terms:  'the  nous  having  sophia'  can  understand  the  revealed  mystery  of 
the  Beast  or  Babylon. 

'*  Gloel,  op.  cit,  p.  296,  'The  gnosis  effected  by  the  Spirit  has  for  its  object 
primarily  and  predominatingly  the  salvation  that  has  appeared  in  Christ 


398    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

It  is  by  gnosis  too  that  we  are  '  to  abound  in  hope  in  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. '  The  gift,  Ephes.  1, 17,  of  the  spirit  of  sophia  and 
apocalypsis  in  our  epignosis  is  for  the  illumination  of  our  hearts 
'to  know'  the  hope  of  God's  calUng,  the  wealth  of  his  glory  and 
the  might  of  his  power  to  us-wards.  Though  eye  hath  not  seen  the 
things  prepared  for  those  who  love  God,  he  has  made  a  '  revelation' 
of  them  by  the  Spirit.  They  who  have  received  the  Spirit  which  is 
from  God  may  know  these  xapto-^ei/ra,  which  are  the  blessings  of 
the  messianic  Kingdom  already  appropriated  in  hope;  may  speak 
them  in  words  of  wisdom  taught  by  the  Spirit;  and  may  know 
them  avvKplvovres  and  avaKplvovres,  because  having  as  well  the 
vovs  of  Christ. 

Christian  fellowship  also  is  developed  by  this  gnosis,  which  is  a 
spiritual  gift,  I  Cor.  12  ff.,  for  the  profit  and  upbuilding  of  the  whole 
body  of  Christ.  Opposing  the  exclusiveness  and  indiyidualism  of 
the  errorists,  the  goal  of  unity  and  of  a  perfected  humanity  which 
is  revealed  in  the  faith  and  initial  epignosis  of  the  Son  of  God, 
Ephes.  4,  13,  is  apprehended,  known  and  increasingly  realized  by 
understanding  of  the  mystery  of  Christ  in  fellowship  with  all 
saints  in  all  individual  and  corporate  relations.  It  is  a  gnosis  which 
is  advanced  in  mutual  love,  service  and  worship ;  and  definitely  in 
the  teachings,  exhortations  and  admonitions  in  the  church  service 
and  ministry,  as  well  as  by  the  discernment  and  testing  of  the 
prophetic  gifts  of  wisdom  and  gnosis  exercised  in  the  Church's 
worship. 

In  I  John  too  in  evident  opposition  to  a  false  knowledge,  the 
function  of  true  Christian  gnosis  appears  interwoven  throughout 
all  the  discussions  of  the  Epistle.  Here  also  it  is  a  spiritual  gift 
enjoyed  in  mystical  union  with  God.  As  we  are  in  him  that  is 
true,  he  has  given  us  an  understanding,  Stcti'ota,  that  we  may  know 
him  that  is  true.  It  is  found  in  the  Epistle  to  be  a  gnosis,  a  spiritual 
perception  and  gift  of  the  Spirit  developing  the  whole  personahty 
that  is  bom  of,  abides  in  and  loves  God.  By  means  of  it  those 
who  have  accepted  in  faith  the  message  of  the  word  of  life,  know 
the  Father  and  the  Son;  and  are  enabled  to  walk  in  the  light,  to 

and  the  eternal  counsel  of  God  realized  in  him;  yet  the  spiritual  knowledge 
of  the  divine  truth  is  at  the  same  time  the  true  basis  of  the  concrete  spiritual 
tasks  and  for  discernment  concerning  all  that  confronts  the  Christian  in  the 
world.' 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  399 

walk  as  Christ  walked,  and  be  thereby  perfected  in  the  love  of 
God.  Their  Christian  hope  is  assured  by  knowing  that  now  are 
they  children  of  God  and  shall  be  like  him,  and  may  have  boldness 
in  the  day  of  Judgment.  And  throughout,  the  Christian  fellow- 
ship in  brotherly  love  and  service  is  grounded  on  the  knowledge 
of  God  and  of  his  love  manifested  in  the  incarnation,  4,  7,  and 
declared  by  the  Apostohc  witness,  1,  1-4,  and  call  to  enter  their 
fellowship  with  the  Father  and  with  his  Son  Jesus  Christ. 

The  claims  to  the  possession  of  mysteries,  wisdom  and  gnosis, 
and  their  perverted  use,  in  the  system  of  the  errorists,  were  thus 
repudiated  in  the  positive  presentation  of  the  function  of  true 
Christian  wisdom  and  knowledge.  But  in  addition,  since  the 
gnosticizing  system  was  a  destructive  influence  upon  Christian 
faith  and  life  as  a  whole,  beHevers  had  still  to  be  guarded  in  the 
Epistles  directed  against  the  movement,  by  the  application  of  the 
general  principles  and  means  of  estabhshment  in  the  faith.  Hence, 
we  have  found  in  all  the  New  Testament  writings  a  confident 
appeal  to  the  initial  faith  of  the  readers  in  the  ApostoUc  Gospel. 
And  in  the  enlarging  and  varied  experiences  of  their  developing 
Christian  Ufe,  they  were  estabhshed  in  this  faith  both  by  being 
recalled  to  the  primary  direct  conviction  of  their  union  with  God 
and  also  by  being  strengthened  in  this  bebaiosis  through  the 
increasing  apprehension  of  the  fullness  of  the  divine  revelation  in 
Christ  by  means  of  the  word  of  wisdom  and  the  illumination  of 
gnosis,  through  the  prophetic  exhortations  to  a  moral  walk  ful- 
filling all  law  as  summed  up  in  love,  and  above  all  through  the 
deepening  life  of  divine  communion  in  personal  devotion,  in  cor- 
porate worship  and  mutual  brotherly  service  in  the  fellowship  of 
beUevers  severally  members  of  the  one  body  of  the  indwelling 
Christ. 

This  constant  method  of  estabhshment  could  be  illustrated  in 
ahnost  any  one  of  the  Epistles,  but  it  appears  with  special  con- 
ciseness in  the  compressed  formulations  of  Jude.  His  aim  in  the 
call  to  contend  for  the  faith  once  deUvered,  is  establishment 
against  gnostic  perversion  of  the  Christian  doctrine  and  life;  and 
the  method  is  that  of  the  other  New  Testament  writers.  There  is 
first,  negatively  an  exposure  of  the  errorists'  teachings,  life  and 
doom.  But  with  vs.  17  is,  positively,  a  call  to  remember  the 
primitive  preaching:  the  words  of  the  Apostles  of  Christ.    The 


400    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

words  here  recalled  are,  with  Mayor  and  Windisch,  from  the 
general  oral  tradition  of  the  Gospel,  which  was  deUvered  in  the 
preaching,  the  initial  instruction  and  in  the  subsequent  didaskalia 
in  the  Church  services,  cp.  I  Cor.  6,  9;  15,  1;  Gal.  5,  21;  I  Thess. 
3,  3;  4,  1;  II  Thess.  2,  5;  Col.  1,  5-7;  Ephes.  4,  20.  Whether  or 
how  far  this  constant  appeal  to  primitive  teaching  in  the  inter- 
est of  establishing  the  readers  of  the  Epistles  in  their  special 
situations,  affected  the  principle  of  selection  of  Christ's  words  and 
deeds  in  the  composition  of  our  Gospels,  is  involved  with  too  many 
other  critical  questions  to  permit  of  its  discussion  here>  Such 
a  relation  between  I  John  and  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  recognized  in 
varying  degrees;  but  the  divergence  of  opinion  as  to  the  dates 
and  destinations  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  and  therefore  as  to 
the  situations  of  their  readers,  prevents  agreement  as  to  the 
EvangeUsts'  special  aims  and  methods  of  selection,  in  estabUshing 
those  readers.  Yet  throughout  the  period  from  62  to  100  a.  d., 
to  which  the  Gospels  are  variously  assigned,  their  definite  selec- 
tions of  the  evangelical  material,  their  special  emphases  and 
details  would  serve  to  recall  to  such  believers  as  possessed  them, 
the  word  of  truth  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ's  life  and  teachings  to 
which  the  Epistles  appealed  against  the  tradition  and  philosophy 
of  men ;  and  this,  not  only  in  the  general  presentation  of  Jesus  as 
the  Christ  and  Son  of  God,  as  in  Mark;  but  in  addition,  by  their 
record  of  his  Virgin  Birth,  of  his  moral,  universalistic  and  eschato- 
logical  teachings,  of  the  reality  of  his  resurrection,  of  the  mission 
of  his  Apostolic  Church,  as  in  Luke  and  Matthew :  all  in  contrast 
to  the  current  denials  of  these  fundamental  Christian  principles.'* 

"  Von  Soden,  Theolog.  Abhandgn  Weizs&cker  gettridmet:  The  Interest  of  the 
Apostolic  Age  in  the  Evangelic  History,  pp.  161-165,  emphasizes  the  pressing 
interests  at  the  time  of  the  composition  of  the  Gospels,  as  a  normative  in- 
fluence on  the  formulation  of  the  Evangelical  traditions.  Maintaining  that 
the  two  dominating  themes  in  Matthew's  five  Discourses  were  the  animation 
of  the  eschatological  hope  and  the  need  of  direction  for  right  behavior  in  order 
to  attain  it,  he  finds  that  the  shadow  of  the  errorists  of  the  later  Epistles 
moves  through  these  Discourses:  chaps.  24  and  25  reflecting  anxiety  con- 
cerning the  spreading  errors  of  denial  of  the  Parousia  and  its  accompaniments; 
and  the  other  Discourses  guarding  against  the  libertine  antinomians  of  Pas- 
torals, Jas.  Jude,  II  Peter,  writings  which  stand  in  closest  connection  with 
Mtw.  B.  Weiss,  Introd.,  §  35,  n.  2,  and  Quellen  d.  Luk.  evglms.,  p.  257,  also 
holds  that  Mtw.  in  7,  22;  13,  41;  24, 12,  combats  the  antmomians  of  his  period 
It  is  however  to  be  recalled  both  that  these  errors  appear  in  the  earhest  Epistles 


GNOSTICISM  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  401 

The  confident  reminder  in  Jude  17  f.  of  the  faith  preached  is, 
moreover,  conjoined  as  throughout  the  New  Testament,  with 
the  reference  to  the  readers'  reception  of  the  ApostoUc  witness: 
to '  their  most  holy  faith,'  to  the  spiritual  experiences,  the  bebaiosis, 
the  epignosis  of  the  grace  of  God  in  truth,  resting  upon  their 
acceptance  of  the  faith  once  delivered.  It  is  'most  holy'  both  in 
view  of  its  divine  source  and  consecrating  efficacy,  and  also 
as  contrasted  with  the  impious  and  impure  perversions  of  it  by 
the  opponents  of  vs.  4.  Their  destructive  influence  is  to  be 
counteracted  by  positive  development,  advance,  growth,  upbuild- 
ing of  this  faith.  As  an  'upbuilding'  the  life  of  faith  is  viewed  as 
a  participation  in  a  corporate  life  growing  up  unto  the  fuUgrown 
man,  cp.  B.  Weiss,  N.  T.  Theology,  92.b  and  n.6;  106  .a.  In  II  Cor. 
13,  13,  the  perfecting  of  the  Christian  life,  vs.  11,  is  in  the  grace 
of  Christ,  the  love  of  God  and  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Spirit; 
so  here,  faith's  upbuilding  is  by  means  of  this  threefold  relation 
with  God  in  the  threefold  fellowship,  love  and  hope;  and  it  is 
further  viewed  in  our  vss.  20.21  as  a  coimterpart  to  the  threefold 
reference  to  the  errorists  of  vss.  18.19  as  mockers  of  the  Parousia, 
walking  in  impious  lusts  and  as  causing  separations,  not  having 
the  Spirit. 

The  upbuilding  of  faith  by  prayer  in  the  Holy  Spirit  is,  there- 
fore, seen  to  have  a  wider  reference  than  the  usual  interpretation 
of  the  words  as  individual  prayer  prompted  by  the  Spirit.  As  in 
Ephes.  6,  18,  cp.  4,  1  ff.,  the  reference  is  to  the  corporate  life  of 
worship  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Spirit.  We  learn  in  I  Cor.  12-14 
and  Ephes.  4,  1-16,  that  when  '  the  whole  Church  is  assembled 
together,'  the  one  body  animated  by  the  one  Spirit  and  giving 
diligence  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  is  built  up  and  estabHshed 
by  the  Spirit's  gifts  of  wisdom,  gnosis,  prophetic  exhortation  and 
admonition,  didache  and  didaskalia,  as  well  as  by  the  corporate 
devotion  of  prayer,  praise  and  thanksgiving  in  the  Spirit;  and 

and  also  that  they  are  there  met  by  appeal  to  the  still  earlier  primitive  Gospel 
preaching,  didache  and  didaskalia.  In  view  of  the  fact  of  the  relation  of  the 
structure  and  contents  of  our  Gospels  to  the  leading  topics  and  contents  of 
the  primitive  preaching  and  teaching  to  which  believers  were  recalled  in  the 
Epistles  for  their  establishment  against  errorists,  it  is  evident  that  this  special 
interest  could  continue  to  be  served,  in  connection  with  the  general  aims 
of  the  Gospels,  by  the  selection  of  relevant  material  from  the  primitive  preach- 
ing and  instruction. 


402    APOLOGY  AND  POLEMIC  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

further,  that  this  united  worship,  ministry  and  instruction  is  for 
the  profit  and  edification  both  of  the  Body  of  Christ  and  of  its 
members  severally. 

EstabHshment  and  upbuilding  in  this  corporate  life  in  the 
Spirit  is  next  to  be  advanced  by  'keeping  yourselves  in  the  love 
of  God.'  Again  in  this  compressed  and  possibly  hturgical  formu- 
lation the  contrast  to  the  preceding  walk  in  lusts  by  the  ungodly, 
points  to  spiritual  advance  in  the  moral  walk  in  love.  With 
Windisch,  Hhe  phrase  unites  as  in  Phihppians  2,  14  the  divine 
and  human  activity  in  religious  life';  and  with  Bigg,  while  the 
love  of  God  means  here  the  love  of  God  for  man,  yet  '  they  are  to 
keep  themselves  safe  within  the  Covenant  by  obedience.'  So 
too  we  find  m  II  John  6:  this  is  love,  that  we  walk  in  his  command- 
ments; and  even  more  definitely  in  I  John  2,  5.6  echoing  John  15, 
9  f . :  if  ye  keep  my  commandments,  ye  shall  abide  m  my  love. 

The  inspiration  for  upbuilding  of  faith  by  this  fulfilbnent  of  the 
divine  law  of  love  is,  as  we  have  constantly  found,  the  hope  of  the 
mercy,  grace  and  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a  hope 
living  and  aboundiug  in  the  power  of  the  indwelling  Holy  Spirit 
as  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance  of  the  Kingdom;  a  hope  that 
works  out  stedfastness  under  all  trials  and  as  well,  animates  us 
to  ministry  for  the  restoration  of  the  erring  and  of  those  that 
oppose  themselves.  Thus  increasingly  established  and  built  up 
in  faith,  love,  hope  and  unity  of  the  Spirit  are  the  '  Christians  of 
the  ApostoUc  Age  and  of  all  succeeding  ages  confidently  sum- 
moned to  contend  for  the  faith  which  was  once  for  all  deHvered 
imto  the  saints.'  And  Jude's  closing  doxology  to  the  God  of 
hope,  mighty  to  guard  us  from  stimibling  and  to  place  us  before 
his  glory  blameless  and  in  exceeding  joy,  includes  the  Church's 
assurance  of  the  direct  divine  ministry  in  her  preaching  of  the 
everlasting  Gospel  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit;  of  his  bebaiosis  and 
confirmation  of  faith  in  the  epignosis  of  the  grace  of  God  in  truth 
by  those  who  accept  her  witness;  and  of  his  sterigmos,  establish- 
ment and  upbuilding  of  this  faith  in  all  her  abiding  witness  and 
application  of  it  to  the  new  tasks  of  the  developing  history  and 
life  of  humanity.  Inspiring  this  her  faith  is  the  Spirit-bom  con- 
viction: Faithful  is  God,  who  also  will  confirm  you  blameless  unto 
the  end,  in  the  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


INDEX  OF  SELECTED  BIBLICAL  CITATIONS 

Matthew  page 

PAGE      3,  1  fif 29 

3,  13ff 15      3,  16  fif 80 

11,  2  fif 15      4,  25 66 

11,11 206      C.5 30 

c.  12  fif 46      5,  36 25 

12,  22  fif 35,  38      6,  68 24 

12,  38  fif 31,  44      6,  69 20 

c.  13 51      c.  6 39 

16,  1  £f 42      cc.  7  fif 47 

16,  13  fif 21      7,  46 24 

22,  31 120      8,  41 149 

c.  23 31      cc.  9  fif 49 

24,  30 43      12,  49 24 

27,  11  fif 164      14,  10 25 

28,  19 79,  104,  110      15,  27 22 

16,29 54 


Mark 


16,30 20 

18,  36  fif 161 

1,  16  fif 1,  6,  17  18,  38 165 

2,  1-3,  6 31  18,  31  fif 53 

3,  22  fif 35  19,  11 161 

7,  1  fif 46  20,  21  fif 79 

8,  11  fif 31,  38,  41  20,  31 29 

8,29 20 

8,30 52 

10,45 53  AcTTS 

12,26 120  ,    ^  ^^ 

12,38fif 31  1,1- 10? 

'''''' ''  U"-;::::::::::::::::::::  ?l 

c.  2 57 

Luke  2,22 112 

14                                                  107  2, 24 60 

7;i8fif.;;:::::::::::;:::::::  15  -2,29fif ei 

11,  14  fif 35,  38  2,  36     103 

11  29 40  2,  38  fif 76 

11  30 44  2,  38 62,  78 

11  33  fif 46  2,  42  fif 115 

13,29 79  2,42 110,  121 

17,  20  f 42  c.  3.      |g 

23,2.14.22 163  3,  19  fif 76 

24,19 75  4,5   65 

24,27 79  4,13 22 

24, 44 54  5,  17     65 

24  47 79  5,  30  fif 65 

c.  8 66 

T^„,,  8,35 105,  113 

•'^^^  8,37 120 

1,  41  fif 20  9,  15  fif Ill 

cc.  2-5 18  9,  15.27 82 


404        INDEX  OF  ifeELECTED  BIBLICAL  CITATIONS 


PAGB 

10,34flf 67 

10,35 88 

10,  37f 14 

10,36 112 

10,38 132 

10,48 122 

11,  17f 69 

11,20 81,  189 

13,  7fF 90 

13,  23fif 14,  71 

13,27.34 71 

13,  30ff 60 

13,  38fif 154 

14,  9fiF 91 

14,22 121,  134,  140 

c.  16 189 

16,1 186 

15,36.41 135 

16,20 82 

16,  20f 91 

16,  31 113 

16,33 Ill 

17,  2  f 71 

17,6 159 

17,  16fiF 92 

18,6 155 

18,  12ff 167 

18,24-19,7 203 

18,25 109 

18,  25f 106 

18,26 105 

18,  26flF 122 

20,  7ff 141 

20,28 251 

20,35 145 

22,  10 109 

22,  21 82 

22,16 78 

23,  11 76 

23,29 171 

24,  Iff 159 

24,  14ff 171 

^,  24ff 96 

26,3.11.26 172 

26,8 120 

26,  16ff 126 

26,17 82 

26,18 96 

26,22 71 

26,  23 120 

28,23 66 

28,33ff 75 

Romans 

1,11 140 

i;9flf 138 


PAQE 

1,16 79 

1,  18ff 87,  98,  195 

2,  Iff 87 

2,  5ff 121 

2,18 106 

3,30 120 

5,  12ff 255 

6,17 110 

c.  8 256 

8,  16 127 

8,24 133 

8,26 121 

cc.  9-11 157 

10,  Off 119,  120 

11,36 239 

12,  Iff 259 

12,2 120 

cc.  14-15 261 

15,8 79,  133 

15,13 133 

15,  14ff .' 138 

16,15 139 

16,  19 131 

16,  17  ff 110,  248 

16,  26f 396 

I  Corinthians 

1,5 246 

1,6 133 

1,  6ff 137,  393 

1,  8f 137 

1,  12ff 229 

1,  18ff 132 

2,  Iff 132 

4,  17 122 

4,  19 378 

5,  3f 140 

6,  Off 110 

6,  12-20 243 

8,  2f 127 

8,6 239 

10,  15ff 244 

11,9 377 

11,  23ff 144 

12,3 241 

12,8 246 

c.  13 246 

cc.  13ff 398 

13,  12 127 

14,  19 107,  122 

14,23 141 

14,  23ff 103 

15,  1 74 

15,  Iff 114 

15,  3  f 67,  71 

15.4 237 


INDEX  OF  SELECTED  BIBLICAL  CITATIONS        405 


PAGE 

15,  5ff 72 

15,  12flf 145 

15,  31 120 

15,34 247 

15,  45fif 240 

16,23 242 

II  Corinthians 

1,  15fif.23 138 

2,13.17 130 

4,  1-6 240 

4,  4ff 100 

4,6 269,  395 

5,  ISfif 130 

10,  2ff 378 

11,22 286 

12,  1 395 

Galatians 

1,15 74 

2,  Ifif 190 

2,  llff 198 

4,9 127 

5,5 134 

6,6 104,  122,  107 

Ephesians 

1,9 269 

1,  12 79 

1,13.14 132 

1,  17 398 

1,  18fif 120 

1,  20flf 279 

2,  lfif.11-22.. '. 279 

3,  3ff 396 

3,  6fif 279 

3,  16fif 395 

3,  17 136 

4,  Iff 401 

4,  1-16 279 

4,nif 138 

4,13 398 

4,il6 136 

4,17 127 

4,  17ff 99,  110 

4,  25ff 281 

4,30 132 

5,2 100 

5,  25ff 282 

6,  18  f 121,  401 

Philippians 

1,6 137 

1,7 2,  77,  124 


PAGE 

1,  16 2,  77 

1,  25ff 138 

1,27 137 

2,  Iff 283 

c.  3 284 

3,  lOff 395 

COLOSSIANS 

1,5 146 

1,  9ff 99,  267 

1,  12-2,3 270 

1,29 131 

2,  2 269 

2,4-3,4 272 

2,6f 110 

2,7 127 

2,18 274 

2,20-23 275 

3,1-4,6 277 

3,  14 267 

4,  12 396 

I  Thessalonians 

1,5 102 

1,  9f 90,  100 

1,  19f 98 

2,  13 7,  103,  130 

2,  17ff 138 

3,3f 121 

3,  7ff 144 

3,10 138 

4,1 120 

4,  Iff 118 

4,  llff 144 

4,  13  ff 118,  216,  219 

5,  1.10 120 

5,  llff 144 

5,  12ff 121 

5,  14 145,  220 

5,17 120 

5,  19ff 218 

5,24 137 

II  Thessalonians 

1,  Off 120 

l,7ff 65 

2,  Iff 224 

2,  2ff 217 

2,  13f 109 

3,2 214,  317,  377 

3,6 221 

I  Timothy 

1,3 292 

l,7f 291 


406        INDEX  OF  SELECTED  BIBLICAL  CITATIONS 


PAGE 

2,2 177 

2,5 298 

2,  15 299 

3,15 121 

4,2 295 

4,6 292 

4,  10 299 

4,  13ff 141 

6,  12f 298 

6,20 293 

II  Timothy 

2,8 298 

2,9 179 

2,10 299 

2,  18 296 

2,25 380 

3,  6  f 302 

3,10 169 

4,2 141,  145 

Titus 

1,3 100 

1,4 99 

1,  9-16 222 

1,10 291 

1,  15 100 

1,  15f 293 

1,  16 295 

2,  llfif 99,  300 

3,3 177 

3,  3ff 99 

3,  4fF 299 

3,  9f 379 

Hebrews 

cc.  1-4 308 

2,  3  f 130 

4,  12f 131 

5,  llflf 313 

5,  12 122,  146,  313 

5,  12ff 110 

5,  22flf 104 

6,  1 107,  122 

6,  IflF 118,  126 

6,  11.16  f 133 

6,  18f 127 

10,  19 144 

10,  19ff 118 

10,  20f 380 

10,  22flf 314 

10,25 315 

10,26 392 

11,6 83,  120 

cc.  12-13 314 


PAGE 

12,2 137 

12,  14flf 380 

13,9ff 141,  317 

I  Peter 

l,3ff 33 

1,  18f 324 

2,  2  f 136 

2,4-10 327 

2,  13fiF 325 

3,  13ff 324 

3,  15 1 

4,  7ff 327 

4,13 179 

5,  10 136 

5,  12 139 

II  Peter 

1,1 * 329 

1,  3ff.9 332 

1,12 57 

1,  16  fr.l9  flf 333 

2,  1 333 

2,  12 331 

2,  13ff 330 

2,  18 331 

2,  18ff 335 

c.  3 334 

3,  lf.l7f 146 

I  John 

c.  1-2,  17 339 

1,  1-4 399 

1,3.5 56 

1,6 346 

2,  12  f 349 

2,  15ff 344 

2,  19 377 

2,  22 340 

2,24 146 

2,  28  flf 341 

2,  29  flf 343 

3,4 343 

4,  Iff 340 

4,7 399 

4,  7  flf 340 

4,  13  flf 348 

5,  6f 341 

5,  17 343 

5,  18 348 

II  John 

9 286 


INDEX  OF  SELECTED  BIBLICAL  CITATIONS       407 


JUDE 


PAGE 
....    332 

331,  333 
....  336 

337 

....  399 


3 

4 

8 

11 

17 

12flF 245,  330 

20  f 130 

22  ff 381 

Revelation 

c.  1 357 

cc.  2-3 350 

14,  6  f 97 

19,  10 360 

22,  8  f 360 


Psalms 

page 

2 72 

16 60 

68,  11 61 

110 61 

Isaiah 

52,  13ff 64 

53,  lOff 53 

Daniel 
7,13 21,  359 


Malachi 


3,1 


71 


Genesis 
cc.1-3 296,  313 

Deuteronomy 

6,4 120 

32,20 379 


I  Clement,  cc.  35-36 
42,3.... 


83 
124 
109 
106 


Didache,  6,  3;  7,  1;  9,  1 

7  1 

Irenaeus,  C.  Haer,  iv.  24 ^^ 

Justin,  /  Apology,  61.65 106 

67 142 

Tertullian,  Apology,  2 160 

Scorpiace,  10 160 


GENERAL  INDEX 


aggelia,  56 

Agrippa  I,  persecution  by,  153  f . 

Agrippa,  II,  172. 

angels,  doctrine  of,  308  f.,  310  f. 

Antinomianism,     condemnation    of, 

178  fif. 
Antioch,  Church  at,  189  fif. 
ApoUos,  203  f . 
apologetic,  history  of,  5  f . 
apologia,  1,  77,  124  £F. 

to  the  pagans,  161  ff. 
apology  in  New  Testament,  1  ff . 
Apostles,  as  witnesses,  22. 

establishment  in  faith  by  Resur- 
rection, 54  f . 

faith  of,  13  ff. 

their  discipline  in  faith,  20  ff . 

their  establishment  in  faith,  50  ff. 
apostolic  tradition,  validity  of,  385  ff 
apostolic  witness,  147. 
asphaleia,  108  ff. 

Balaam,  teaching  of,  353  ff . 
Baptism,  62  f.,  69,  105  ff.,  132. 
preparation  for,    105    f.,    Ill    ff., 

113  f.,  115  ff. 
seal  of,  132. 
bebaiosis,  7,  78,  123  ff.,  304,  387  ff., 

393. 
Beelzebul  controversy,  35  ff. 
blood,  abstinence  from,  196. 

Cainites,  sect  of,  370  f . 
Carpocratian  systems,  338. 
catechesis,  primitive,  104  ff.,  119  ff. 

in  Epistles,  118  ff. 
catechetical  forms,  119  ff. 
Caesar  versus  Christ,  183  f . 
Christ,  redemption  in,  324. 
Christ  party,  at  Corinth,  252. 

at  Rome,  228  ff. 
Christian  life,  development  of,  144, 

246  f. 
Christology,    primitive    defense    of, 

9  ff.,  10. 
Church,  authority  of,  279  ff.,  282  ff., 
318  f. 
authority    of,  versus    Gnosticism, 

219  ff.,  243,  315  f. 
fellowship  in,  121,  137. 


Church,  unity  of,  versus  Gnostics, 
345  f. 

unity  in,  261,  279  ff.,  282  ff. 
concision,  the,  286. 
controversial  element,  1  ff . 
conversion,    phenomena    connected 

with.  111. 
Corinthian  parties,  228  ff. 
Cornelius,  67  ff.,  188  f . 
Council  at  Jerusalem,  190  f . 
Creed,  primitive,  115  ff.,  146. 
Cross,  gnostic  attitude  toward,  239. 

Jewish  attitude  toward,    149  ff., 
155  ff. 

scandal  of,  55,  59,  63. 
Cypriote-Cyrenian  propaganda,  80. 

Death  of  Jesus,  52. 

demonstration    of    the    Spirit,    77, 

101  ff.,  128,  132. 
didache,  110  ff.,  122  ff. 
Didache,  105  ff.,   110,    115  f.,  195, 

197. 
discipline  of  errorists,  378  ff. 
docetism,  257,  332,  340  f . 

epignosis,  267,  268,  293,  391  ff. 
Epistles,  relation  to  primitive  Gospel, 

146  ff. 
establishment,  against  Gnostics,  384. 

in  the  faith,  134  ff . 
Ethiopian  Eunuch,  conversion,  67. 
Eucharist,  118  f.,  140  ff.,  316  ff. 

maintained  against  Gnostics,  244  ff . 
evildoers,  suffering  as,  180  f . 
exaltation  of  Jesus,  61,  63  f.,  72. 

faith,  primitive  Christian,  7. 

process  of,  123. 

certitude  of,  128  ff. 

establishment  in,  134  ff. 
Felix,  96  f .,  170  f . 
fellowship  in  Gnosis,  398. 
'form  of  teaching,'  110. 

Gallio,  action  before,  167  f . 
Gamaliel's  position,  152. 
Gentiles,  admission  of,  188  ff. 
evangelization   of,   78  ff.,   81   ff., 
82  ff.,  92  ff. 


410 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Gentiles,  opposition  of,  82  ff.,  91 
gnosis,  246  ff.,  260,  266  ff.,  274,  278  f ., 

288,    293    ff.,    331    ff.,    348    f., 

388ff.,390f.,395ff. 
Gnosticism,    antithesis    to    Gospel, 

273  ff. 
doctrines,   systems,   212,   216  ff., 

239,  294,  352  ff. 
early  appearances  of  conflict  with, 

209  ff.,  213  ff .,  227, 270, 290  ff . 
Gnostics,  antinomianism  and  denial 

of  authority,  218,  238,  243,  255, 

276  f .,  281  f .,  291  ff.,  301  ff.,  315, 

319,  324  f .,  335,  336,  342,  347. 
as  pneiunatics,  375,  386. 
asceticism,  275  f.,  295  ff. 
claim  of  gnosis,  246,  331  ff. 
claim  of  spiritual  gifts,  217  f .,  234  f ., 

245  f.,  311  f. 
denial   of   redemption   in   Christ, 

271  ff.,  298,  324,  333. 
denial  of  resurrection,   217,   219, 

233  ff.,  237  f.,  258  f.,  274,  297, 

332. 
description  of,  214,  220  ff.,  284  ff., 

330  f .,  376  ff. 
divisive  character,  229,  252,  259  f., 

280,  314,  330  ff. 
doctrine  of  perfectionism,  268, 288. 
errors,  summary  of  their,  363. 
eschatology,  their  attitude  to,  217, 

221,  322. 
Jewish  origin  of,  234,  290,  307,  338, 

351,  360,  364  ff. 
moral  character  of,  214  ff.,  220  ff., 

281  f.,  315. 
polemic  against,  233  ff.,  284. 
propaganda,  265  ff. 
Godfearers,  80  f . 
Gospel  as  word  of  God,  129  f . 
"Gospel  of  Christ,"  56. 
Gospels,  apologetic  character  of,  3  ff. 
as  sources,  9  ff. 
polemic  in,  27  ff. 
written  for  establishment  in  faith, 

202. 

Hellenists,  181, 189. 
humiliation  of  Jesus,  240  f.,  283. 

illumination,  Christian,  394  ff. 
Incarnation,  the,  in  conflict  with  the 

age,  2. 
mterpretation  of  Scriptures,  311. 
Israel,  election  of,  157  ff. 

Jesus,  as  Lord,  112,  241  ff.,  271  ff., 
279, 298, 308  ff .,  309, 336,  358. 
birth  of.  149. 


Jesus,  controversy  with  opponents, 
28,  31,  33,  37. 

death  of,  52. 

his  appeal  to  the  Old  Testament, 
52  f. 

his  faith  in  his  Messiahship,  16,  18. 

power  of  his  personality,  19  ff. 

the  Christ,  51  f.,  59. 

the  name,  241. 
Jews,  evangehzation  of,  8  ff.,  57  ff., 
79. 

polemic      against       Christianity, 
149  ff.,  153. 
Jewish  propaganda,  80  ff.,  114  ff. 

syncretism,  366  ff. 
Jezebel  the  prophetess,  354  f .,  356  f. 
John  Baptist,  school  of,  203  ff.,  372. 

witness  of,  3  f .,  14  ff. 
John,  Gospel  of,  47  ff. 

as  witness,  17  ff.,  25. 
Jonah,  sign  of.  43  ff. 
Judaizers  in  Church,  189  ff.,  199  ff. 

katecheo,  107  f.,  122. 
Kingdom,  the,  51,  160  f. 

Law,  Christ's  attitude  to,  149. 

relation  of  Gospel  to,  186  ff. 
liturgical  elements  in  Epistles,  137, 
140,  142. 

forms,  140. 
Love,  law  of,  120,  246  f.,  260  f. 

Mark  as  a  teacher,  122. 

Messiah,  Jesus  as,  16  f.,  18  f.,  70  f., 

157  ff. 
Messianic  claims  of   Jesus,    41   ff., 
51  ff. 

hope  in  instruction,  117,  120. 

signs,  40  f. 

teacning,  156. 
Messianism,  72  ff. 
ministry,  for  refuting  errorists,  300  f . 

of  the  Church,  138  ff . 

of  the  word,  130  ff. 
moral  rules,  194  ff. 
mystery,  268  ff. 
mysteries,  of  faith,  394  ff.,  397. 
mystical  union  with  Christ,  256  ff. 
mysticism.  Christian,  389  f.,  394. 
myths,  Jewish,  296. 

Name,  persecution  for  the,  175  ff., 

179  f. 
Nero,    charges    against    Christians, 

174  f.,  180. 
New  Testament  as  apology,  1  ff. 
Nicolaitans,  353  ff.,  356,  372. 
Nicolaus,  372  f . 


GENERAL  INDEX 


411 


Oral  Gospel,  its  contents,  56  fif.,  70  fif. 

Palestinian  Church,  loyalty  to  Juda- 
ism, 152  ff. 
Parousia,  334  ff.,  340. 
doctrine  versus  Gnosticism,  217  ff., 
223  ff.,  228  ff.,  238. 
Paul,  at  Athens,  92  ff . 
his    knowledge  of  Jesus'   earthly 

Hfe,  73  ff. 
his  preaching,  60  ff. 
preaching  to  Gentiles,  82  ff.,  98  ff. 
his  propaganda,  70  ff.,  76. 
relation    to    Jewish    propaganda, 

83  f .,  87  ff. 
relation  to  Stephen,  153. 
Pentecost,  gifts  at,  61  f. 
persecutions,      counsel     concerning. 
192  ff. 
attitude  towards,  182. 
Peter,  at  Antioch,  198. 
his  preaching,  57  ff . 
sermon  at  Pentecost,  60  ff. 
Pharisees,  controversies  with  Jesus, 
28  ff.,  46  ff. 
Jesus'  denunciation  of,  49  ff . 
Phihp,  65  ff. 
pleroma,  273. 

pleiopharia,  102,  127  ff.,  133  f . 
Pliny's  testimony,  142  f . 
polemic  with  Jews,  185  ff. 
prayer  of  corporate  Church,  401. 
Priscilla  and  Aquila  as  teacners,  122. 
propaganda,  Christian  versus  Jewish, 

87  ff.,  100  ff. 
prophecy,  witness  to  Jesus,  60  ff.,  67, 
72  ff. 

Quiet  in  the  Land,  27. 

Resurrection,  150  ff. 
Jesus',  52,  55,  60,  64,  72,  94. 
as  a  sign,  45,  60  ff.,  72. 
as  subject,  151. 
gnostic  attitude  toward   and  po- 
lemic against  237  ff.,  240  ff.,  245, 
255,  296. 
Revelation,    Book   of,    persecutions, 

184. 
Rome,  conflict  with,  159  ff.,  166. 
conduct  of  Church  toward,  176  ff. 


Rome,  legal  process  against  Chris- 
tians, 174  ff. 
loyalty  to,  177. 

Sadducees,  attitude  to  Jesus,  27  f . 

attitude  to  Church,  152  ff . 
Sergius  Paulus,  preaching  to,  90. 
sign,  demand  for  a,  38  ff. 
signs,  as  proof  of  the  Gospel,  130  ff. 
Silas  as  a  teacher,  122. 
Simon  Magus,  371. 
Son  of  God,  21,  23. 
Son  of  Man,  20  ff.,  359. 
Spirit,  fruits  of,  133. 

gift  of,  69,  133. 
Stephen,  187. 

death  of,  80. 

his  defense,  157,  187. 
sierizein,  establish,  134. 
strangled,  things,  193  ff. 
sufferings  of  Christ,  64. 
summaries  of  Christian  hfe,  117. 
supernatural  elements  in  Apostohc 

preaching.  111. 
Synoptics,    ordei    of    controversies, 

32  ff. 

Tacitus,  testimoQy  concerning  Chris- 
tians, 175. 

teachers,  122. 

TertuUus'  charge  against  Paul,  170  f. 

Timothy  as  a  teacher,  122. 

testimonies,  collections  of,  59. 

Theophilus,  108  f. 

Tubingen  School,  187,  209. 

Two  Ways,  the,  100,  114  f.,  116. 

universalism  of  Gospel,  78  ff.,  185  ff., 
186. 

visitations  of  Churched,  138  f . 

witness,  of  the  Father,  22  ff. 
of  Jesus'  words,  24. 
of  Jesus'  worko,  24,  37. 
to  Christ,  25. 
women,  gnostic  doctrines,  296,  302, 

326. 
worship  of  Church,  as  corporate  act, 
401  f. 

Zealots,  attitude  to  Jesus,  28. 


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